Between the deep valley which contains the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, and the hill country of Judea, in which Jerusalem and Bethlehem are situated, lies a narrow stretch of desert which evokes memories of great Biblical ascetics - Elijah and John the Baptist. The empty landscape and scriptural associations drew Christian ascetics in the third century. The new edition of this work by Cyril of Scythopolis provides perhaps our best source of information on the Palestinian monastic movement from AD 400-600. He gives a history not only of holy monks, but also of the Palestinian Church at the height of its power and prestige.

The Syrian monks of the fourth and fifth centuries led lives at the opposite extreme from the culture of graeco-roman cities. Unwashed, unkempt, often homeless, usually poorly educated, making a positive virtue out of physical deprivation, they shocked and appalled cultivated pagans. Even Christian townsmen had to overcome hellenic prejudices before they could see in these uncouth figures the spiritual paragons of the age. Yet the Christian laity of the day, led by their clergy, admired and revered them, and flocked to them to behold living examples of true perfection. In his Religious History, Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, recorded the extraordinary lives of these men (and women) of God, and the-to us quite unfamiliar-spirituality which they spectacularly embodies.