Thanks to Otfried Lieberknecht for the references to John the Baptist.
I also would think that he was important to desert monasticism but
two recent books on the subject don't mention him: Douglas Burton-Christei,
*The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in
Early Christian Monasticism* (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993) and Graham Gould, *The Desert Fathers on Monastic
Community* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), but of course these are
more on cenobitical than on eremitical life.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|