Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers are much more well known because most of the early lives of the saints "were written by men for a male monastic audience"—the occasional stories about the Desert Mothers come from the early Desert Fathers and their biographers. Many desert women had leadership roles within the Christian community. The "Apophthegmata Patrum", or "Sayings of the Desert Fathers", includes forty-seven sayings that are actually attributed to the Desert Mothers. There are several chapters dedicated to the Desert Mothers in the "Lausiac History" by Palladius, who mentions 2,975 women living in the desert. Other sources include the various stories told over the years about the lives of saints of that era, traditionally called "vitae" ("life"). The lives of twelve female desert saints are described in Book I of "Vitae Patrum" ("Lives of the Fathers").