Library › John Climacus

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Scala Paradisi

Written about 600 to 650, probably in Monastery of Mount Sinai (now Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt). The date is disputed or rests on weak evidence.

Thirty steps of the monastic life, from leaving the world to love.

Treatise · first written in Greek · a major work

The corpus has only a stub or a pointer file for the English (placeholder).

Not yet on the site. We have not yet found an English translation of this work that is in the public domain.

How we know the date and place

Date written not sure

His dates are disputed: about 579 to 649 (Chryssavgis 2004) or about 525 to 606 (older view)

Place written probable

Written when he was abbot at Mount Sinai, for John, abbot of Raithu (letters before the Ladder; Chryssavgis, John Climacus, 2004)