This second volume completes Tim Vivian’s magisterial translation of the Greek alphabetical collection of the Apophthegmata Patrum, undoubtedly the most comprehensive presentation in English of these teachings of the earliest generations of Christian monastics, begun two years previously with the publication of the initial volume. The thirty-nine abbas whose verba, sayings and stories, are included there, representing the first seven letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha through eta), are now joined by the remaining ninety-two figures (theta to omega) of the full collection. The disparity in numbers is partially explained by the fact that volume 1 included an 85-page Introduction that provided an overview and detailed discussion of the entire work, but the 377 pages of translated text here are still more than double the 168 pages of corresponding material found in the previous volume – the total of 581 pages in volume two is considerably heftier than the 409 of its predecessor (though the $49.95 price remains the same for each).

While some of the great masters of the Egyptian eremitical tradition had already appeared among the earlier group of figures, particularly the “alpha” monks Arsenius, Agathon, Ammonas and of course Antony, the traditional founding father and model par excellence of the hermit life, among those encountered in volume 2 are such fascinating and significant figures as John Colobos (“the Little” or “the Dwarf”), a name perhaps reflecting not only his stature but his humility and appealing, self-deprecatory personality, revealed in the forty sayings of this collection, along with seven independent appended apothegms (31-56); Macarius of Egypt, “the Great,” “the Spiritbearer,” considered to be the founder of the monastic settlement at Scetis, with forty-one sayings (113-44), sometimes paired (or even confused) with his namesake Macarius of Alexandria, “the Citizen” (175-76), better known from the Lausiac History of Palladius; Sisoës, a name held by at least two (of Thebes and of Petra) and possibly three different abbas, not always distinguishable, represented by 52 sayings in toto (303-20), who also has the distinction of being the only abba with entries under two variant names, the second being Tithoës, with six additional apothegms (at least some if not all of which belong to Sisoës of Thebes) (357-58); and most prominent of all, Abba Poemen (“the Shepherd”), with an amazing 187 sayings in the alphabetical collection (not including an additional 23 independent apothegms and thirteen more found only in the Systematic Apophthegmata collection, appended in this translation) (203-71). There are also eight sayings attributed to John Cassian, the seminal figure in bringing the tradition of the Eastern desert fathers to the West, four of which are based on material from his Latin Institutes (89-94). This second volume also has the verba of the only three ammas included in this collection among their male peers: Theodora (7 sayings along with 3 additional independent items) (23-29); Sarah (8 alphabetical sayings plus an additional independent one) (333-36); and Syncletica (18 in the alphabetical collection plus 10 additional items) (336-56) – this last clearly a figure of major significance in the history of early monastic life. Amidst this large group of eremitic and semi-eremitic figures it is unexpected to come across a pair of rather substantial excerpts from the work of Horsisius, disciple and successor of Pachomius, the founder of Egyptian cenobitic life (195-98). Also making a brief appearance is the reputed founder of Palestinian monasticism, Hilarion (otherwise known almost exclusively from his biography by St. Jerome), with a single item relating his visit to St. Antony (87) (also found in the first volume in almost identical form in the appendix to the sayings of Antony [1.119]).

For those somewhat familiar with the history of early Egyptian monasticism it may be particularly surprising to come across among these figures Theophilus, the late fourth-century Patriarch of Alexandria, the bête noir of the Origenist desert fathers, forced into exile by his vitriolic opposition, who subsequently was held responsible for leading an attack on the hermit settlements of Nitria and Scetis; called “Blessed Archbishop” and even “Abba Theophilus” (multiple times), the presence of his six sayings (18-23) suggests that his controversial role in the story of the desert fathers has faded into semi-oblivion – or has been deliberately overlooked – by the time the collections of apothegms were being assembled in final form. The fact that excerpts from the Chapters on Prayer of the greatest of the Origenist fathers, Evagrius (who had died in 399, the year before the desert storm erupted), are already being transmitted under the name of Neilos (Nilus) in this collection (177-79), as they would be all the way into the modern period, reinforces the impression that by this time the Origenist strand of desert spirituality is being suppressed, though Evagrius himself does still have nine sayings attributed to him by name earlier in the collection (1.241-46).

The overall pattern of this second volume is basically the same as that of its predecessor, with certain modifications and refinements – all helpfully pointed out by Vivian in his brief Preface (xv-xix). In lieu of a second full-length Introduction, he has provided “A Thematic Introduction” (xxxv-xxxix) of three dozen key motifs (e.g. discernment, inward stillness, obedience, silence), arranged alphabetically in English with the Greek equivalents, many though not all discussed in some detail in the earlier volume, with a listing of references to specific verba exemplifying them in the present text, thus making it possible to trace particular elements of desert spirituality as they appear in connection with multiple figures. The text proper continues to provide pagination references to the Greek original (actually the column numbers from vol. 65 of Migne’s Greek Patrology), along with the location of corresponding items also found (for most but not all items) in the Systematic (i.e. thematically arranged) Collection of the Apophthegmata, now including as well the specific page numbers in Jean-Claude Guy’s three-volume edition (2013) of the latter in the French Sources Chrétiennes series. (Only this latter collection is found in Latin, though in one of the few inaccuracies in this volume – presumably a slip of the pen, or the keyboard – a reference to Thomas Merton’s selected translations from this Verba Seniorum is identified as based on an alphabetical rather than systematic text [424].)

Translations of the relatively few additional sayings of certain abbas, not found in these two sources but published by Guy in his 1962 Recherches on the Greek Apophthegmata tradition, have been included immediately following those in the alphabetical text for these fathers. In the case of Abba Poemen, thirteen sayings found only in the Systematic Collection are also added as a special appendix (266-71), as was the case with seven sayings of Antony in the previous volume (1.117-19); it is not completely clear whether only these two fathers have sayings in the systematic collection not found as well in the alphabetical collection, but given the comprehensiveness of Vivian’s approach it seems probable that this is the case.

In three places, Vivian inserts substantial comments into the text proper. “A Personal Note” (147-48) in the midst of the Abba Moses verba reflects on ancient and contemporary racism in response to the great Black African father’s own apparent internalizing of his being treated as less than fully human. Vivian’s “Excursus: A Small Linguistic and Narrational Masterpiece” (198-201) provides an appreciative reading and analysis of the second of Horsisius’s pair of sayings. His “Appendix: A Brief Discussion from Colleagues” (305-306) following Sisoës #6 summarizes reflections of two other scholars on the proper place of the passions in the process of spiritual development. While each of these is insightful, their very rarity makes them seem particularly anomalous and rather intrusive; one wonders if they could have been included in some alternate way rather than interrupting the progression of the translated text itself.

In his charming personal “Foreword” (xxi-xxv), historian Rick Kennedy, the translator’s close friend since graduate school, advises the reader “to be attentive to the two parallel texts, one running in the body of every page and the other at the bottom” (xxii). He is referring to the abundance of notes providing information on a whole spectrum of pertinent topics, often occupying up to a quarter or occasionally even half of a page. Here can be found instructions on proper pronunciation of the Greek name of each abba or amma (a new feature of this second volume); nuances of the meaning of particular Greek words; reasons for the occasional choice of textual variants for the translation; differences in phrasing and even in main point between systematic and alphabetical versions of a saying; plays on particular Greek words; notable rhetorical patterns; reasons for a specific word choice in the translation; likely interpretations of ambiguous phrases; scriptural references; notes on figures and places mentioned in the text; occasional references to relevant secondary sources or earlier translations; cross-references to other sayings; explanations of unfamiliar customs or cultural practices. Seemingly every conceivable textual or contextual matter of interest has been addressed. (Amidst the literally thousands of annotations, minor mistakes are nearly, though not completely, absent: Abba Pambo has not one but fourteen sayings in this volume [252 n.306]; the “schismatics” referred to in Abba Phocas #1 are apparently not Nestorians [365 n.6], since they warn the monk Abba James against this very group as “dyophysites” who “slander the truth” [366] – identifying “schismatics” in the wake of the Councils of Ephesus [431] and Chalcedon [451] is difficult, especially in Egypt, but apparently the tendency of this particular group is monophysite, or “miaphysite,” a less fraught term for those holding a position favoring a single nature for Christ.)

As in the previous volume, the text itself is followed by an extensive Glossary of “Vocabulary, Places, People” (381-473), signaled by asterisks in the text, and sometimes in the notes as well, each time they appear, along with information, drawn largely from the Coptic Encyclopedia, on numerous “Dramatis Personae” (475-90), consisting almost exclusively of monastics included in this alphabetical collection, although the subtitle here, unlike volume 1, mentions “and Others.” A new feature in this second volume is that throughout the entries of both sections any reference to terms, places or people with their own entries are cross-referenced by the use of bold print (in one case, Virginity is twice bolded [466] even though there is in fact no separate entry on virginity). There is considerable overlap in the contents of these sections in the two volumes, as of course key terms and significant people recur in earlier and later portions of the collection, this volume frequently repeating word-for-word the material found in the first, though sometimes adding additional details or further secondary references, as with the entries on Books (394), Contemplative quiet (399-400), Cross (401-402), Possess/Possessions (443), Poverty (444-45) and Wilderness (469). As might be expected, the Glossary of volume 2 is considerably expanded, a total of 93 pages compared to 58 in volume 1, with new entries on topics such as Apocryphal texts (387-88), Arianism (389), Body (393), Mystical experience (431), Theotokos (464); places including Fayyum (411), Panephysis (437), Sinai (456); people such as Maximus and Domitius (426-27) and Shenoute (455-56). The “Dramatis Personae” is likewise expanded from fourteen to twenty-five figures, omitting four abbas found in the first volume but including the rest (two of which are actually from this volume). Strangely, two of these figures appear (inadvertently?) not only here but in the Glossary as well: Pachomius, the odd man out, the only “Other” included among this group (484), is more appropriately located in the Glossary (437), where a briefer entry is taken verbatim from that found in the preceding volume (1.296-97); conversely, Archbishop Theophilus, ironically “belonging” here (490) as having his own entry in the text proper, had already been presented in the Glossary (463) – again duplicating the description virtually word for word from volume 1 (1.312), a generally positive, or at least neutral profile, whereas that in the “Dramatis Personae” section, though drawn from the same Coptic Encyclopedia article, mentions his “lasting and perhaps deserved infamy” for his persecution of the desert monks and his role in the banishment of St. John Chrysostom from Constantinople.

The final sections of back matter, a Selected Bibliography (491-503), a Scripture Index (505-20) and a General Index (521-42), parallel those in the previous volume – the first a revised and expanded version of the listings found there (1.323-30), the latter two of course unique, referring to material found in this volume. One feature found in volume 1 but omitted here indicated the pagination of the actual apothegms of each abba in that volume by bolded type; the asterisks that had previously indicated the presence of a note on certain pages have been replaced in this volume by the actual inclusion of the proper note number to accompany the appropriate page number, a clearer, more precise procedure.

As this overview might itself suggest, such a detailed treatment of this material, its sheer volume and variety, might well sound quite overwhelming, and probably would be for even the most devoted reader who attempted to consult every word of annotation and every glossing reference sequentially. But that is surely not the editor’s intention. One can limit oneself to reading the actual text, with occasional consultation of the auxiliary material as desired, or if one decides to focus on a particular saying or story for in-depth reflection, there is generally a wealth of ancillary material available, to enrich either a meditative “lectio” approach or a more academic study, or both. Tim Vivian has provided in his two volumes enough food for thought, and for prayer, to reward multiple encounters with this classic of early Christian spirituality that both casts light on its own period and provides wisdom and insight on perennial blessings and challenges of a life of committed discipleship in every age.