’Aphrahat, the Persian Sage on the Beginnings of the Monastic Movement

Abstract

This short historical investigation wants to contribute to the research into the origins of Oriental monasticism by looking into the practical theology of the prayer and of continence, in the corpus of epistles written by ’Aphrahaṭ, the “Persian Sage” (4th century, Sasanian Empire). In particular, Demonstrations 4 and 6 are examined in detail with a view to their Western reception history, from their editio princeps by William Wright (1869) up to the present day. The bibliographical essay is accompanied by a Hungarian translation of excerpts from Demonstration 6, “On the Sons of the Covenant”.