The Lost Letters of St. Anthony the Great: Spiritual Wisdom from the Father of Monasticism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781735657899)

The only complete collection of all twenty of St. Anthony's letters translated into clear modern English for the ordinary reader.

For over a thousand years, the West has known St. Anthony the Great only through the story of his life recorded by St. Athanasius - the fierce temptations, the desert solitude, and the miracles. What has remained hidden from ordinary readers, until now, are St. Anthony's own words.

He was long assumed by the West to be illiterate (due to an old misunderstanding). However, St. Anthony in fact wrote letters of extraordinary spiritual depth to those who sought his guidance.

For centuries, his voice was silent in the West. His letters survived only in Coptic and Arabic manuscripts, safeguarded by the faithful of the Egyptian desert, and reached modern readers - if at all - only in recent decades through academic editions few people ever opened.

The full spiritual counsel of St. Anthony - the man that St. Athanasius called the model of the Christian life - is finally accessible, in St. Anthony's own words.

Inside, Saint Anthony speaks with startling directness on:

• Knowing yourself - the discernment that separates true spiritual insight from self-deception
• The unseen battle - recognizing and resisting the passions that quietly govern a distracted mind
• True repentance - not guilt, but the soul's actual return to its true nature in God
• Steadiness amidst chaos - the wisdom of a man who found peace in an era just as turbulent as our own

Anthony didn't write theory. He wrote to real people who were struggling - the same way you might turn to a wise elder today, asking simply: what do I do with this restlessness in my soul?

Sixteen centuries later, his answer still holds.

Whether you're a student of the desert fathers, drawn to orthodox spirituality, or simply searching for guidance that predates the noise of modern self-help, this is a rare thing: a saint from the desert speaking to you directly, for the first time in full.

Begin reading St. Anthony's complete letters that have laid hidden from Western readers for over one thousand years.