John Cassian

Cassian spent years among the monks of Egypt, learning from the great desert elders, before founding monasteries at Marseilles in southern Gaul. His two masterworks, the Institutes and the Conferences, distilled the spiritual wisdom of the desert — on prayer, the eight principal vices, discretion, and the goal of purity of heart — for Western readers. Benedict of Nursia prescribed the Conferences to be read daily in his monasteries, making Cassian one of the quiet architects of all Western monasticism, while the East honors him as a saint.

St Benedict ordered the Conferences read before Compline every evening.

John Cassian has 1 commentary entry in HolyStudy’s verse-by-verse Church Fathers commentary. Open any Gospel chapter, tap a verse, and choose the Church Fathers tab.