Pherme was the location of a community of ascetic monks in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

which grew after the 4th century CE as a satellite community of the better known community of

Kellia Kellia ("the Cells"), referred to as "the innermost desert", was a 4th-century Egyptian Christian monastic community spread out over many square kilometers in the Nitrian Desert about 40 miles south of Alexandria. It was one of three centers of ...

('the cells'). According to the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project, the site of the monastic remains at Pherme, located 11 kilometers southeast of central Kellia, escaped some of the water damage suffered by the lower Kellia site because of its higher elevation. Today the site contains some 115 monastic hermitages, only ten of which were excavated by Swiss archaeologists during digs from 1987 to 1989. Pherme is mentioned in the ''

Apophthegmata Patrum The ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' ( la, Apophthegmata Patrum Aegyptiorum; el, ἀποφθέγματα τῶν πατέρων, translit=Apophthégmata tōn Patérōn) is the name given to various textual collections consisting of stories and ...

'' (''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'') as the dwelling of several

Desert Fathers The Desert Fathers or Desert Monks were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Scetes desert of the Roman province of Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , na ...

, including Abba

Theodore of Pherme Theodore of Pherme was an Egyptian Christian monk who lived in the desert of Scetes in Lower Egypt during the 4th century. He was one of the Desert Fathers. Theodore was a monk at Scetis and may have been trained by Macarius of Egypt, Macarius the ...

and Abba

Lucius Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...

References

Christian hermitages Coptic settlements Archaeological sites in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt {{Egypt-geo-stub