Monastery of St John the Baptist

Orthodox books published by the Monastery of St John the Baptist

The Monastery of St John the Baptist, in Essex, runs its own publishing house and bookshop through which it has been writing, translating and publishing Orthodox Christian books since 1959. The website serves as both catalogue and shop: it brings together works in various languages and formats, and includes both recent titles and established backlist.

Catalogue in several languages

The list is organised by language of publication. There are books in English, Greek, Romanian, French, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, German and Spanish. The shop allows browsing the full catalogue or filtering by language, and also offers audiobooks and ebooks for reading or listening anywhere.

Available formats

In addition to printed books, the catalogue includes ebook and audiobook editions. Among the audiobooks listed is Prayer as Infinite Creation, with a total listening time of 12 hours and 15 minutes. The shop indicated a 20% discount on all ebooks and audiobooks, applicable at checkout.

New releases and featured titles

The new releases section includes recent launches in various languages and formats, such as The Dawn of the Eternal, Reflections on Strengthening Family Relationships, Zorii veșniciei, Ἡ χαρισματικὴ καλλιέργεια τῆς βαθείας καρδίας and The Hidden Man of the Heart, among others. In the popular books section, titles include Saint Silouan the Athonite, We Shall See Him as He Is, On Prayer, Christ, Our Way and Our Life, Remember Thy First Love, Monasticism, Hesychasm, Prayer as Infinite Creation, Theology as a Spiritual State, Conversations with Children and Seeking Perfection in the World of Art.

Homilies and trilogy on the Church feasts

The catalogue devotes a prominent space to homilies. A trilogy gathers sermons for each Sunday, from the start of the Triodion period to the feast of All Saints after Pentecost. The volumes cited are At the Doors of Holy Lent, with talks and sermons from the Sundays before the Triodion up to Forgiveness Sunday (139 pages); Alive from the Dead, covering all the Sundays of Great Lent up to Pascha (541 pages); and Thirst for Life Eternal, a journey through the festive period from Pascha to All Saints (332 pages).

Editing and translation

The publishing work includes the translation of liturgical and spiritual texts. In the presentation of The Orthodox Liturgy it is stated that the translations are made from the Old Church Slavonic service books, in consultation with the corresponding Greek texts, and that they seek a liturgical English inspired by the King James Version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. The same work includes notes with references and sources of terms or phrases.

Reader reviews

The website shows a score of 4.9 on Trustpilot with 194 reviews, and stated figures of more than 300 ratings, more than 8,000 satisfied customers and more than 15,000 books sold per year. The comments highlight the value of the publications of St Silouan, St Sophrony and Archimandrite Zacharias, as well as the physical quality of the books: clothbound hardbacks with stamped text, quality paper, uncluttered layout and binding that allows the book to lay flat. Recent editions with two-colour text and a ribbon bookmark are also mentioned.