Works of St John Cassian (Institutes, Conferences, On the Incarnation)

Saint John Cassian · c. 425 AD

Ante-Nicene Fathers (Roberts–Donaldson), Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1885–1887; digitized by CCEL.

Founder of the abbey of St Victor in Marseilles; the principal bridge between Egyptian desert monasticism and the Latin West. His twelve books of Institutes describe the practice of cenobitic life and the eight principal vices; his twenty-four Conferences record his interviews with the great Desert Fathers of Scetis and Nitria, including St Anthony's disciples. The Institutes and Conferences are foundational for Orthodox monastic theology and stand alongside the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the Ladder of Divine Ascent as the canonical witnesses to early monastic spirituality. Commemorated as a saint in the Orthodox Church on 29 February.

Contents

1. The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults(269 chapters)
2. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X(246 chapters)
3. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII(122 chapters)
4. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV(130 chapters)
5. The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius(113 chapters)