Translating the Fathers of the Church is a responsibility that cannot be delegated: making accessible, in the language of Montaigne, the thoughts of John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Maximus the Confessor. Men and women have dedicated their lives to this work, century after century, so that the voices of the early Church do not fade away. This documentary tells this story.
It all begins in the 17th century, in the solitude of the Abbey of Port-Royal des Champs. The “Solitaires”, these scholars withdrawn from the world, undertake a translation of the Fathers with a rigor and spiritual demand unprecedented for the time. Michel Stavrou, an Orthodox theologian and professor, guides us through these places: the spirit of Port-Royal is not without similarities to the Orthodox tradition, which is surprising and deserves attention.
In the 19th century, Abbot Migne launches a daring challenge: to publish hundreds of volumes of Greek and Latin patrology, making all the texts of the Fathers accessible to the Christian world. Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, director of the collection “The Fathers in faith,” retraces this editorial adventure and shows how these volumes, originating in the West, nourished the patristic revival in Russia and throughout the Orthodox world in the following century.
In Lyon, at the premises of the Sources Chrétiennes, Guillaume Bady opens the doors of the workshop. Ancient manuscripts, critical editions, Greek and French texts side by side, an array of notes: we see concretely how a text dating back sixteen centuries becomes a printed page that is rigorous and faithful.
But what is a Father of the Church? What distinguishes a Father from a simple Christian author? Father Marc-Antoine Costa de Beauregard answers this question. Reading the Fathers, he reminds us, is not a matter of scholarship: it is a practice that involves prayer, the sacraments, a living Tradition that is received, not preserved under glass.
Documentary produced by Father Jivko Panev
