How pleasant is the solitude of a remote place to those who thirst for God! How attractive for those who seek Christ are those solitary lands stretch… - Eucherius of Lyon

The cell in the desert truly deserves to be called the ark of strength, the seat of faith, the tabernacle of charity, the treasury of piety, the storehouse of justice. For just as in a home precious objects and valuables are kept in a hidden place behind locked doors, so also those magnificent gifts of desert sanctity are put away in a cell in some desert protected by natural inaccessibility, lest they decay because of exposure to worldliness. The desert is an ideal place for the Lord of all to preserve his precious ornament of sanctity, not only to store it there but to bring it out of its hiding place when it is needed.

It is right for a holy man aflame with divine passion to leave his own home and choose the desert as his dwelling. It is right for him to sell all his goods and prefer the desert to father and mother and children. It is right to abandon the land of one’s birth and seek a provisional homeland in the desert, never to be called back by fear or longing or joy or sadness. Clearly this desert dwelling is worthy of total devotion.

Did not he also live in the desert who was greater than any man born of woman, he who was a voice crying in the desert? In the desert he instituted baptism, and in the desert he preached repentance. In the desert the Kingdom of Heaven was first heard of. In the desert he first commanded those mysteries to his listeners, because by going into the desert they could sooner merit them. It was highly fitting that this desert dweller, this angel sent before the face of the Lord, should open the way to the heavenly kingdom. He was both a precursor of Christ and a witness worthy to hear the Father speaking from heaven, to touch the Son as he baptized him, and to see the Holy Spirit descending.