A Time to Keep Silence

From the French Abbey of St Wandrille to the abandoned and awesome Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia in Turkey, the celebrated travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor studies the rigorous contemplative lives of the monks and the timeless beauty of their monastic surroundings.

In his occasional retreats, the peaceful solitude and the calm enchantment of the monasteries was passed on as a kind of 'supernatural windfall' which A Time to Keep Silence so effortlessly records.

This is a contemplative travel memoir that follows Patrick Leigh Fermor's experiences staying at various monasteries across Europe and Turkey. The book explores the daily rhythms of monastic life, the spiritual atmosphere of these ancient places, and how periods of silence and solitude affected the author. Fermor writes with his characteristic literary elegance about the contrast between the outside world and the timeless, meditative environment of the monasteries. The book offers both a personal account of spiritual retreat and vivid descriptions of remarkable religious architecture and landscapes, from French abbeys to the extraordinary cave monasteries carved into the rock formations of Cappadocia.