Note: A reader of this Substack has asked me to write some reflections based on the Sayings of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. There are so many wonderful insights and stories to choose from! Today I’m offering an initial reflection on the silence of the desert, and over the next two weeks I’ll share some thoughts on seven of my favorite of the many great jewels to be found in this body of ancient contemplative literature. — CM
The desert ascetic pursued and cultivated silence. This was a silence pregnant with the presence of the Divine, the womb where the word grew. The goal of silence was the inner quiet of strength, not the total absence of words. — Laura Swan
Sister Laura Swan (b. 1954) is a Benedictine nun and the author of several works of both fiction and spiritual nonfiction, including The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women. Like many monastics, she recognizes that the great women (and men) who lived as contemplative hermits in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria in the 3rd and 4th centuries, were the progenitors (?) of both Christian monasticism and mystical spirituality.
Who were the desert fathers and mothers? (I also like to refer to them as simply the desert elders or the desert dwellers, to be a bit more gender-inclusive; Sister Laura also calls them the desert ascetics). They were a ragtag assortment of Christians who felt called to a life of radical simplicity, solitude, stillness and silence, in the waning years of the Roman Empire, by abandoning the comforts of urban living and seeking an austere life in the wilderness and desolate regions of the middle east. Many of them were inspired by the story of Jesus’s forty-day fast in the wilderness after he was baptized, which culminated in his dramatic experience of being tempted by the evil spirit (Matthew 4:1-11); others — including St. Antony, one of the most celebrated of the desert elders — were inspired by the story of Jesus challenging a wealthy young man to sell all his possessions, give the money to those in need, and devote his life to following Christ (Matthew 19:16-22).
In the desert, many of these hardcore Jesus-followers lived as hermits, although eventually some came together to worship and even work communally; historically these ad hoc communities have been regarded as the earliest Christian monasteries. The desert elders also were the first spiritual directors, providing words of wisdom and guidance to younger seekers; such words became the content of the literature that has comprised the sayings of the desert.
As Laura Swan points out, silence was a key component of the desert experience, but this is more than the mere “absence of words” — the silence of the desert invited the elders (and us) into the presence of the divine. It is an invitation not to simply enjoy external silence, but to cultivate inner quiet: that place where we can “be still and know” the silent presence of the Holy One.
Quotation source: Laura Swan. The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women (p. 32). Kindle Edition.