Lions in the Desert

Little is known of Paul of Thebes, the first Christian hermit. We know he grew up in Thebes, Egypt, inherited wealth from his parents as a teenager, and felt forced to flee Thebes when Roman persecutions against Christians began under Emperor Decius' brief reign. After searching and wandering in the wilderness he finally settled on a special haven enclosed by mountains where a single palm tree grew. And then? The man lived a life of prayer for the next eighty-plus years What happened during all that time? In this imaginative historical novel I try to tell the meaningful, logical story of that more secret, secluded part of his life. I show how his life story became the foundation of later worldwide Christian monasticism.