Collectio Monastica

The Collectio Monastica ("Monastic Collection") is an Ethiopic book that includes some original sayings of the Desert Fathers and which is textually independent of the better-known Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers). It was first published by Victor Arras in 1963, based on two separate manuscripts that were likely based on Greek language or Coptic sources.[1][2]

The collection consists of sixty-eight chapters of widely different lengths. Included in the book are collections of Desert Father sayings, most of which have no parallel in the Apophthegmata Patrum. The original work appears to have been written by a fifth-century monk who either lived with the Desert Fathers at Scetis, or knew the monks who lived there. He also appears to have known Abba Poemen, because of several unique stories and sayings attributed to him.[3]

  1. ^ Arras, Victor (1963). Collectio monastica: Ethiopic text. Secrétariat du CorpusSCO.
  2. ^ Harmless, William (2000). "Remembering Poemen Remembering: The Desert Fathers and the Spirituality of Memory". Church History. 15. American Society of Church History. Archived from the original on 2013-05-18.
  3. ^ Harmless, William (2004). Desert Christians: an introduction to the literature of early monasticism. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. p. Appendix 8.5. ISBN 0-19-516222-6.