Arthur M. Gilbert & Son, Publishers Back to asceticism ii: the trappist option: a translation with introduction and notes of de la saintet et des devoirs de la vie monastique, paperback/vincent ryan

De la saintet et des devoirs de la vie monastiqueby the Abb Armand-Jean de Ranc was originally published in Paris by Francois Muguet in 1683.

In 1830 it was translated and titled On the Sanctity and the Duties of the Monastic State by Abbot Vincent Ryan, founding abbot of Mount Melleray in Capoquinn, Ireland and published in Dublin by Richard Grace.

This derivative edition has been re-typeset, re-titled, edited, updated, heavily annotated, and its many citations both substantially corrected and expanded.

Moreover, it has been supplied with a contemporary introduction, with 44 illustrations as well as an Image Index and an Index of Scriptural Citations.

Although Abb de Ranc , the founder of the Trappists, originally wrote for his monks, many laity of 17th c.

France gladly embraced much of his spirituality, and to wonderful effect.

With asceticism re-appearing now as a corrective to our self-indulgence and softness, his wonderful book is a badly needed, albeit bracing corrective for the Christians of our time.

If appropriated in our day, Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option will likely accomplish spontaneously all that The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher envisioned, and far more.

On the Sanctity and Duties of the Monastic State was the soul of Trappist spirituality until very recently, and the very implosion of the Trappists suggests that survival of the order depends on an about-face, a return to the wisdom of its founder.

In fact, the same may be said mutatis mutandi of the entire Church, which is badly in need of this ascetic wisdom which de Ranc has distilled from Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard and the Desert Fathers, from Saint Basil, Saint John Climachus, and others.

Volume I contains the following fifteen chapters: 1 - The Obligations of Religious Life in General 2 - The Institution of the Monastic State 3 - Of the Origin of the Solitary Life 4 - Of the Different Forms of Life Which Were Established among the Ancient Solitaries 5 - Of the Essence and Perfection.