Saint John Cassian on Prayer

For more than sixteen centuries, John Cassian has been honored as one of the greatest early monastic writers. The breadth of his experience of eremitical life in the Egyptian desert, his distinction as a theologian and churchman, and especially his veneration for some of the great Desert Fathers are conveyed in the Institutes and Conferences, which continue to be prized as a spiritual resource by Christians in East and West. The two classsic conferences on prayer are presented here in a new translation with critical introduction.