https://therepository.org/ancient-paths/The Christian contemplative tradition, East and West, read from the source: the desert fathers, the mystics, the practices and the places.enhttps://therepository.org/ancient-paths/ep01-saint-anthony-why-thousands-followed-him-to-the-desert/https://therepository.org/ancient-paths/ep01-saint-anthony-why-thousands-followed-him-to-the-desert/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:30:38 +0000In the fourth century, thousands of Egyptians left the green valley of the Nile to live in rock and sand, and the man they followed was Anthony. Everything we know of his life comes from one book, written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who knew him. We read it in Greek, translated the key passages ourselves, and set it beside the documents of Roman Egypt: a tax edict, a village papyrus from 324, and the travellers who tried to count the monks.