Benedicta Ward is a sister of the community of Sisters of the Love of God, based in Oxford, England. She is Reader in the History of Christian Spirituality at the University of Oxford and an honorary lecturer at Harris Manchester College. She has written a number of books on early monasticism and on the Middle Ages and is one of the world’s most knowledgeable writers on the legacy of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Benedicta Ward contributed a fascinating foreword to the book In the Heart of the Desert, Revised: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers by John Chryssavgis.