"Lavsaik" is a famous book about ancient Christian hermits who asceticized in the harsh deserts of Egypt and Palestine in the IV-early V centuries. At that time, there were about five thousand monasteries in Egypt. On one Nitrian mountain ("city of saints") there were about 50 monasteries.

       The author of the book, Bishop Palladius, himself lived among the desert dwellers and carried out obedience to experienced elders. During his travels to various monasteries in Lower Egypt, the Thebaid and Palestine, he personally met with the wondrous lamps of faith and with the disciples of the first generation of monastics in Egypt (the Monks Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great, Amun of Nitria, St. Athanasius of Alexandria). From simple and reliable narratives we learn about the lives of such memorable fathers as St. Macarius the Great, Moses Murinus, who became famous in the waterless Skete wilderness, about the Thebaid hermit John of Lycopolis, who spent 48 years in his cell clinging to the cliff, and about others.

       In addition, the author cites several amazing stories from the life of pious women — St. Melania of Rome, of Palestine, the holy deaconess of Olympias, the spiritual daughter of St. John Chrysostom, and others. Centuries have passed, but amazing stories from the lives of the holy ascetics again and again excite all those seeking salvation.

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia

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Moscow Metochion of the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius 2003

Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis.

Lavsaik, or the Narrative of the Lives of the Holy Fathers.

Preliminary notice for publication in Russian

The writer of this book, Palladius, a Galatian by birth, first traveled for several years to various countries of Egypt, then went to Palestine, from where he arrived in Bithynia, where he was ordained bishop of Helenopolis and had close communion with Saint John Chrysostom. But, defending the saint from the attacks of his enemies, he himself was forced to hide for eleven months in a solitary cell. After that he was in Rome. All the above-mentioned travels of Palladius, as can be seen from the contents of the book, relate to the time from 388 to 404 after the birth of Christ.

In the course of these travels, Palladius with great zeal collected information about the lives of the holy and blessed fathers and some women, and he offered the collected information in this book, as he himself says in the Preface, "in order to arouse zeal for imitation in men who wish to lead a heavenly life... and as an example of love for God for women who wish to adorn themselves with the crown of abstinence and purity."

This book was written at the desire and conviction (as can be seen from the Preface) of a certain famous man, who held a very important position at the imperial Byzantine court [1], named Lavsa, therefore the book is dedicated by the author to him and in his name received the name "Lavsaicus".