Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios: Reflections on the Spiritual Journey

Hyperechios’s Exhortation to the Monks for the first time in English translation

Hyperechios is a little-known monk of the fourth to fifth centuries, who is thought to have lived in Roman Palestine, possibly coastal Sinai. He wrote the Exhortation to the Monks, 160 short sayings, much like the apophthegmata, or sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, but also structurally very different-most of the sayings are two lines of poetry that offer instruction.

The Exhortation, and early Christian monastic writings in general, teach that a spiritual life requires a life of training and practice, individually and as a neighbor and friend within one’s community. This volume studies Hyperechios’s Exhortation to better understand the moral and spiritual values in a fourth to fifth-century Christian monastic community, while reflecting also on how these are contemporary with the modern day. Drawing on modern works by scholars and placing the Exhortation in conversation with contemporary writers on the spiritual life, Tim Vivian begins with an introduction about Hyperechios, his location, the text, then a lengthy reflection on spiritual matters. He follows this with an English-language translation of the Exhortation and the Greek text, both accompanied by footnotes that offer biblical and patristic cross-references.

Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios will be of interest to scholars and general readers of early Christianity, early monasticism, and Christian spirituality, both ancient and contemporary.

Tim Vivian (Introduction and notes by, Translated by) is professor emeritus of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield, and a retired priest of the Episcopal Church. He has published, among many books, The Life of Antony (with Apostolos N. Athanassakis, 2003), The Holy Workshop of Virtue: The Life of Saint John the Little (with Maged S.A. Mikhail, 2010), Becoming Fire: Through the Year with the Desert Fathers and Mothers (2009) and The Sayings and Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (vol. 1, forthcoming, 2021).

John Chryssavgis (Foreword by) is archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, theological advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch, and a clergyman of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He is the author of several books, including John Climacus: From the Egyptian Desert to the Sinaite Mountain (2018) and Primacy in the Church: The Office of Primate and the Authority of Councils, vols. 1 and 2 (2016 and 2020).