The Birth From On High Reflections on the Spirituality and History of Baptism from the Monastery of St. Macarius

The translation presented here comes from two different sources. Part One, The Symbols of Baptism, is a translation of three chapters that appeared in a study titled The Baptism of Water and the Spirit by Fr Athanasius St Macarius, a monk in the monastery of St Macarius in the Nitria desert in Egypt. Fr Athanasius is a prolific author and liturgical theologian, who has written a large number of works in the last decade on the theology and rites of the different sacraments, as well as various seasons of the Church. Part Two of this work, Baptism in the Bible and the Fathers, is a translation of the writings of Fr Matthew the Poor, one of the most famous and well respected figures in contemporary Egyptian monasticism. The late Fr Matthew was also a prolific author, and a sophisticated thinker and theologian, having dedicated his life to studying the Scriptures and the writings of the fathers. The chapters selected here for translation come from a rather large work by Fr Matthew titled Baptism: The First Origins of Christianity.