Abba Serapion and the Shelf Full of Books

Take a mini retreat to hear what Abba Serapion, one of the travelling Desert Fathers, once had to say about a young monk’s shelf full of books. The Coptic text of this apophthegm is from Marius Chaîne’s 1960 edition of La manuscrit de la version copte en dialecte sahidique des Apophthegmata Patrum (The Manuscript of the Coptic version in the Sahidic dialect of the Sayings of the Fathers, p. 5), and is pronounced (badly) according to historical reconstruction of the Sahidic (Thebaic) dialect of the Coptic language (rather than the Boharic (Memphitic) or Greco-Boharic pronunciation official in the Coptic Orthodox Church, cf. Layton 2007:3-7). The Greek and Latin are from Patrologia Graeca 65:415-416. The English translation is my own from Greek and Latin, pronounced (badly) according to current ecclesiastical pronunciation. If you have questions about the sources or would like to contribute your voice to a reflection or reading in a liturgical language, contact [email protected].