"A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.” -St. Anthony the Great
As Christianity began to spread across the Roman empire in the 4th century, thousands of men and women fled to the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to seek God in simplicity and silence. The wisdom of these seekers was captured in "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers," an anonymous collection of stories and aphorisms that paint a delightfully human picture of early Christian attempts to become holy. As our Lenten journey toward Easter begins, what can we ordinary Catholics learn from the successes -- and failures -- of these remarkable women and men who renounced everything to follow Christ?