The Book of the Elders: Saying of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection: Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection Volume 240 PaperbackIn the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from "the world" to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to "renounce the world" first had to find an "elder," a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abbafather) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would