On January 17, the Church celebrates St. Anthony Abbot, one of the great Desert Fathers whose radical search for God in the wilderness laid the foundations of Christian monasticism. More than sixteen centuries later, the wisdom of the Desert Fathers continues to speak with striking clarity to modern hearts.

Bishop Erik Varden and the Wisdom of the Desert

For Bishop Erik Varden, Prelate of Trondheim and a Trappist monk, that encounter with the Desert Fathers has been deeply personal. Reflecting on his first experiences with their writings, he recalls how their simplicity revealed a profound spiritual depth.

“I’d read about Desert Fathers and I’d read the short collection of sayings before I’d joined the monastery,” Bishop Varden said, “but it was when I was in novitiate I realized just how important this body of literature is.”

What struck him most was their dialogical nature. “These sayings… always, always like dialogues,” he explained. “A young monk coming to the older monk, having a problem and having a quivery of asking, ‘Father how can I live with this, what do I do with this?’”

The answers, Bishop Varden noted, remain timeless. “I found the answers to be so penetrating, so true and so timeless and often disconcertingly addressing precisely what was going in my own heart.”

Praying Through the Desert Fathers Today

That living encounter with ancient wisdom lies at the heart of “Desert Fathers in a Year,” a weekly video series launched with Exodus 90, produced in collaboration with EWTN, and guided by Bishop Varden. The series invites viewers to pray their way through the teachings of the Desert Fathers over the course of a year.

Anthony Johnson, filmmaker with EWTN Vatican, explained how Bishop Varden’s monastic identity shaped the entire project. “Bishop Eric Varden, he’s a Trappist monk, and everything that he prepared in his content was done through this lens,” Johnson said.

Filming followed the bishop’s real-life journey. “The place where we started first with our series was a Cistercian abbey in the Czech Republic,” he noted. “Basically throughout the year, Bishop Eric Varden was speaking at various monasteries and conferences throughout the year, and we would just try to meet up with him wherever he was at.”

From there, the team continued filming in Rome and beyond, capturing monastic life and sacred places that echoed the spiritual landscape of the Desert Fathers’ texts.

From the Desert to the Modern World

As the year drew to a close, the series culminated in what the team described as an “epic pilgrimage” through Italy—following the path of St. Benedict, who translated the desert tradition into a rule of life that shaped Christian civilization.

For Bishop Varden, visiting these foundational sites was initially only a hope. “To begin with, it just seemed like a bit of a dream to go to the foundational sites and record,” he said. “But then it ended up being possible.”

He emphasized that the desert is not limited to geography. “The desert isn’t necessarily made up of sand,” Bishop Varden explained. “You made the point right at the beginning of the series that, you know, the modern city is in many ways a desert.”

Jamie Baxter, CEO of Exodus 90, described the impact of visiting Subiaco and Monte Cassino for the first time. “I got to experience firsthand, on a first impression, the different geographies of these places,” he said, “which made the significance of them, for Benedict, obvious to the senses.”

The journey itself became a lesson. “The topography says so much about the spiritual journey,” Bishop Varden reflected. “The experience itself is basically a human one and unchanging.”

For EWTN filmmaker and creative of the EWTN Travel App Anthony Johnson, the project also changed how he views his work. “It’s the series that I think had the most impact on me in my work as a content creator,” he said, noting how audience responses revealed the series’ pastoral reach.

“When people are commenting from the heart,” Johnson explained, “it really is motivating… it’s meaningful, it’s impactful, it’s reaching people, it’s touching them, and it’s helping them get through difficult times.”

That, he added, is precisely why the Desert Fathers still matter. “These desert fathers, they’re relatable and they’re just like us.”

Each year, Exodus 90 begins ninety days before Easter, inviting participants into a season of prayer and preparation shaped by the Desert Fathers. In 2026, the journey begins on January 5 and leads to Easter Sunday, April 5—a modern pilgrimage guided by voices from the ancient desert.

Adapted by Jacob Stein. Produced by Anthony Johnson; Camera by Alberto Basile; Video edited by Anthony Johnson.