The Paradise of the Fathers is the classic compilation of the lives and teachings of the early monastic saints. It has been said that for a monastic to achieve perfection there are only two books needed: the Bible and the Paradise of the Fathers. This volume is translated from a Syriac manuscript discovered in 1888 by Dr. Ernest A. Wallis Budge. This is a revised and edited edition. Volume 1 of The paradise or gardens of the holy Fathers includes the histories of the anchorites, recluses, monks, coenobites and ascetic fathers of the deserts of Egypt between A.D. 250 and A.D. 400 compiled by Athanasius Archbishop of Alexandria, Palladius Bishop of Helenopolis, Jerome and others.
Dr. Ernest A Wallis Budge, Curator of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum has for decades been recognised as one of the great translators of ancient manuscripts into the English language. These volumes are translations from a Syriac manuscript he discovered in 1888. He first published his translation in 1904 in a private printing. Later in 1907 he printed a revised and updated version in a public version which is yet to be rivaled to this date.
Volume 1 - Contains the Life of St. Anthony by St. Athanasius the Great, the Paradise by Palladius, the Rule of St. Pachomius, and the History of the Monks by St. Jerome.