This book is concerned with the concepts of Christian holiness and spirituality, from Late Antiquity through to the Middle Ages. The first group of articles focuses on the Desert Fathers, the following ones examine key figures in the monastic history of the medieval West, dealing above all with England and with Bede and Anselm of Canterbury. Throughout, Benedicta Ward's aim has been to find an approach that makes full sense of Christian writings, notably the hagiography, miracles and all. This should not be seen, she argues, simply as biography, nor as a quarry for information on social history, valuable though it may be for those purposes. The primary object of these Lives - as of the people about whom they were written - was religious; to neglect this meaning is to risk fundamentally misunderstanding these texts. Ce volume traite des concepts de la saintete et de la spiritualite chretiennes, de l'Antiquite tardive jusqu'au Moyen Age. Le premier groupe d'etudes se concentre sur les Peres du Desert, les suivants font l'examen de personnages-clefs dans l'histoire monastique de l'Occident medieval, s'attachant avant tout A l'Angleterre et A Bede et Anselme de Cantorbery. Benedicta Ward A pour propos constant de trouver une approche rendent tout son sens A la litterature chretienne et notamment A la litterature hagiographique, miracles et autres. Bien que valable A ces deux niveaux, ceci ne devrait pas Atre perAu, souligne-t'elle, en tant que simple biographie, ni en tant que source d'information sur l'histoire sociale. L'objet premier de ces Vies est d'ordre religieux; toute negligence de ce sens peut mener A une mecomprehension fondamentale de ces textes.

An Encomium on Saint Anthony by John of Schmun A letter to the Disciples of Antony by Serapion of Thmuis Instrumental in the conversion of many, including St. Augustine, The Life of Antony provided the model saint's life and constitutes, in the words of patristics scholar Johannes Quasten, 'the most important document of early monasticism.' Here is one volume are translations of the text in the Greek written by Athanasius (from the new critical edition of G. J. M. Bartelink) and in the Coptic, the language Antony himself spoke. Two short contemporary coptic texts further manifest the powerful influence of 'the father of monks.'

It was not until after the conversion of the English to Christianity that any sustained information was written down about Christian life in these islands. This was done in the eigth century by the monk Bede, and it is mostly through his writings that it is possible to be in touch with the first Christians in England and to know about what they thought and did. Ward looks at this "golden age" of English Christianity, how it ended with the attacks of the Vikings and the "golden age" of faith and culture which followed in the tenth century.

Papers on women and religion in the middle ages, drawn from archive, manuscipt and early printed sources. Taking a variety of critical approaches, the papers in Women, the Book and the Godlyanalyse the subject of women and religion, illustrating clearly the wealth of previously untapped material on this topic, whether in archive, manuscript or early printed source. The volume examines writing by women, writing which excludes women, and writing which ignores them, as well as women readers, women patrons, and women who were read to. Archaeology, canon and civil law, and trial depositions are all represented. The common determinants of marital and social status are, of course, explored, but so also are the problems of women and language, women's various roles as creators, recipients, and objects, and women's positions on the sliding scale between the orthodox, the reforming, and the heterodox churches. The essays thus represent something of the variety and range of work being done on medieval women today. Contributors: ALCUIN BLAMIRES, JACQUELINE MURRAY, WYBREN SCHEEPSMA, ANNEM. DUTTON, ROSALYNN VOADEN, GRACE JANTZEN, ELIZABETH A. ANDERSEN, THOMAS LUONGO, BENEDICTA WARD, GOPA ROY, GEORGES WHALEN, CATHERINE INNES-PARKER, HELENPHILLIPS, SHANNON McSHEFFREY, PETER BILLER

From the rich tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Benedicta Ward has selected prayers and passages for meditation from both Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources. The mixture of Latin and Celtic Christian cultures, distilled and appropriated by the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, produced a distinctive English spiritual tradition which embraced kings and princesses, abbesses and monks, cowherds and poets, soldiers and beggars, and birds and animals. It is possible through these passages to walk with these men and women as friends and see how their lives became filled with the life of Christ, in pain and desolation as well as in wonder, love, and praise. '

"Benedicta Ward is Reader in Spirituality at Harris Mansfield College Oxford, and a member of the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God. Among her many books are "The Venerable Bede, "and"High King of Heaven, Aspects of Early English Spirituality.

"In a short span this book contrives to be a masterly introduction to one of the major figures of early English history, in all aspects of his scholarship and personality. Students and general readers will find it invaluable, while professional scholars, not least those interested in Bede the historian, will be very grateful for the survey of his scriptural writings. Sister Benedicta combines good judgement with an almost preternatural sympathy for her subject. Her style is lucid and readable, her choice of quotations inspired."

Beauty consuming itself like incense burnt before God in solitude, far from the eyes of men, became the most stirring image of penance conceivable. Stories on conversion from extreme sinfulness to extreme holiness have always attracted humankind's attention, and this was especially so among the monks of the ancient and medieval world. In the literature of fourth-century Egypt, alongside the wise sayings of the desert fathers and the stories illustrating their way of life, there are also the accounts of the lives of the harlots, Pelagia, Maria, Thais, Mary of Egypt, and a number of lesser figures, all of which were copied, translated, and retold throughout the Middle Ages. In this monograph, Benedicta Ward continues the work she began in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and The Lives of the Desert Fathers, commenting on early monastic texts by discussing the theme of Christian repentance. She begins with May Magdalene, the archetypal penitent, and goes on to examine the desert tradition, concluding each chapter with new translations of those lives which were most influential in the early Church and on countless generations afterwards.

In the year 394 seven monks from Palestine made a difficult journey through the Egyptian desert, drawn there by stories of remarkable men. What they found in the communities living far up the Nile Valley fully accorded with their expectations, and in the account written by one of their number we have a rare contemporary source of information about the lives of these Desert Fathers. The witness of the monks in the face of a corrupt and declining, though nominally Christian Empire, and the roots of monasticism in fourth century Egypt, are subjects of steadily growing interest in the Church in the twentieth century. In her long and illuminating introduction Sister Benedicta Ward SLG explores the background of these traveller's tales and their encounters with the great men of the Desert, and places the account in its literary context alongside the complementary text of the 'Sayings' of the Fathers and the later, more sophisticated literature. She indicates throughout the social impact of the Fathers and the lasting truths discovered by these simple men in their way of holiness. This translation of the Historia Monachorum by Norman Russell is the first available in English, and will be of absorbing interest for the general reader as well as for students.

Three treatises by twelfth-century Cistercians, who reflect on the human person as the image of God and capax Dei, capable of God, of being reformed to the divine Image. Of the three-Isaac of Stella, an anonymous Cistercian, and William of Saint Thierry- only the last discusses the nature ('the physics') of the body as well as of the soul, giving us an insight into medieval medical theory as well as to theological anthrology.

It is nine hundred years since the death at Canterbury of the great mediaeval Archbishop and thinker Anselm. This meticulously researched and immensely engaging book brings to life the man and his times, the depth of Anselm's thought, and his career in the arena of politics in church and state. It explores his place among the saints, in his life and after his death, especially in the light of his profound understanding of heaven which was a central theme throughout his life from childhood onwards. Accounts from Anselm's friends and enemies, his own letters, prayers and meditations are combined with the author's in-depth knowledge of the times to present a rounded picture of a unique Christian figure who speaks to us today, challenging many of our assumptions about his world and ours.

Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century written down in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and later Latin. Their"Sayings" were collected, in this case in the alphabetical order of the monks and nuns who uttered them, and read by generations of Christians as life-giving words that would help readers along the path to salvation.