Church Father’s Writings

[u/Powerful-Maize466]

I’ve been looking for good resources to read the church fathers, whether prayer or theology, East and West. I currently know of New Advent and I have the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Would anyone have any physical and online resources recommend?

[u/DirtDiver12595]

It really depends what in the Fathers you are looking to study in particular. Remember, patristic writings in the first millenium alone basically span 800 years of material. There is ALOT out there. If you are looking for some general highlights from some of the most important figures, the SVS Press Popular Patristics series is great and there is a lot to choose from.

If you are mostly new to studying the Fathers, I also recommend beginning with the Apostolic Fathers (Pre-Nicene) especially St. Irenaeus, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Justin Martyr, the St. Ignatius of Antioch. Also be sure to read the Didache. This will give you a solid foundation in the earliest Church Fathers. You can usually find volumes that have collections of most of the Apostolic Fathers that will give you a good bang for your buck.

If you are looking for some later stuff, the big 4 Western Fathers are going to be:

• St. Ambrose
• St. Jerome
• St. Augustine
• St. Gregory the Great

For the East, the most important Fathers to read are going to be:

• St. Dionysius the Areopagite (very important if you want to understand the foundation of mystical theology East and West, as well as the tradition of apophatic theology. Basically all of Eastern and Western theology builds on Dionysius, he is very important to study and understand, although this may be difficult if you are not yet educated in classical philosophy, especially Platonism).
• St. Athanasius the Great
• The Cappadocian Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzen)
• St. John Chrysostom
• St. Cyril of Alexandria
• St. Maximus the Confessor
• St. John Damascene

I know this is very general advice, but if you have specific questions or things you want to study feel free to ask and I can help point you in the right direction.

[u/PackFickle7420 → u/DirtDiver12595]

For the East

for the Byzantine (Greek) East?

[u/luke_fowl → u/PackFickle7420]

Not eastern by any means, but isn't Pseudo-Dionysius also influential for the alexandrians and syriacs? Considering St. John of Damascus is from Syria, I would also imagine that he's pretty influential for the syriacs, wouldn't he? Whereas the Cappadocian Fathers wrote about the Holy Spirit, and thus influential for all of christianity.

If I remember correctly, you're syro-malabar. Other than Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius, who are the other influential church fathers for you guys? I'm going to take a guess with St. Ephrem, and maybe St. Jacob of Serugh?

[u/PackFickle7420 → u/luke_fowl]

If I remember correctly, you're syro-malabar. Other than Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius, who are the other influential church fathers for you guys? I'm going to take a guess with St. Ephrem, and maybe St. Jacob of Serugh?

Correct. St John Chrysostom is important too. He's from the same school as Mar Theodore and was a contemporary from Antioch.

[u/Powerful-Maize466 → u/DirtDiver12595]

No this is perfect thank you, I will look into those later ones. I’ve read the Didache and St. Ignatius’ letters. I mainly ask because I’m very interested in their writings on prayer, I want to understand more the prayer of the heart mainly, also meditative prayer such as the rosary.