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The Church Fathers · c. 427–428
In Praise of the Desert
De Laude Eremi
Eucherius of Lyons · c. 380 – c. 449
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What it is
A letter to Hilary of Arles arguing that the wilderness is not empty but furnished — God met Moses in it, fed Israel in it, and sent his own Son into it — and that the island monasteries of Lérins are its western equivalent.
Why it lasted
The founding literary statement of Gallic monasticism, which formed Caesarius, Hilary, and Faustus and through them most of the bishops of southern Gaul for a century.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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