In this third of our five-episode series in partnership with the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, we continue to explore the diverse interests of the NEJS Department by looking at a text from the beginnings of Christian monasticism in the Byzantine period. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers is a collection of short stories and sayings from and about monks centered in Northern Egypt in the fourth century CE that were recorded in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Dr. Darlene Brooks Hedstrom, the Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Associate Professor of Christian Studies, takes us through the ways in which the collection was developed, the influence it has had, and its intersections with various faith traditions.