Early Christian Lives

Athanasius · Gregory · Hilarion · Jerome · Sulpicius Severus

Jan 1998 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Written between the mid-fourth and late sixth centuries to commemorate and glorify the achievements of early Christian saints, these six biographies depict men who devoted themselves to solitude, poverty and prayer. Athanasius records Antony's extreme seclusion in the Egyptian desert, despite temptation by the devil and visits from his followers. Jerome also shows those who fled persecution or withdrew from society to pursue lives of chastity and asceticism in his accounts of Paul of Thebes, Hilarion and Malchus. In his Life of Martin, Sulpicius Severus describes the achievements of a man who combined the roles of monk, bishop and missionary, while Gregory the Great tells of Benedict, whose Rule became the template for monastic life. Full of vivid incidents and astonishing miracles, these Lives have provided inspiration as models for centuries of Christian worship.

About the author

CAROLINNE WHITE works at St Hugh's College, Oxford, dividing her time between research projects and tutoring in patristic and medieval Latin. She has worked on many projects in her field, and published several works, and now lives in north Oxfordshire.


Carolinne White divides her time between research projects and tutoring in patristic and medieval Latin at Oxford University. She has worked on the supplement to the Liddell and Scott Greek Lexicon and the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources and has published a translation of the correspondence between St Jerome and St Augustine of Hippo (1990) alongside other work.