Sabino Chialà (b. 1968) Monk of the monastery of Bose, Italian theologian and biblical scholar, outstanding Syriacist and orientalist, specialist in christian apocryphal writings (Libro delle parabole di Enoc, Paideia, 2007) and in the literature of the first centuries of christianity, he has worked in particular on the Desert Fathers and Eastern monastic spirituality (La vita spirituale nei Padri del Deserto, Trapani, 2006), and especially on Abba Isaac the Syrian, whose writings he translated and edited in Italian (Isacco di Ninive. Un’umile speranza, Qiqajon, 1999; Isacco di Ninive. Terza Collezione, Leuven, 2011) and to whom he dedicates an impressive monograph, recently translated into romanian (Isaac the Syrian – Solitary asceticism and endless mercy, Deisis, 2012).
He studied at the University of Turin and at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve and is a member of the Ambrosian Academy of Milan and of the Syriac Association of Syriacs in Italy “Syriaca”.

In the environment of Syro-Eastern monasticism, Avva Avraham of Kashkar certainly holds a place of first importance. The community founded by him on Mount Izla, known as the “Great Monastery on Mount Izla”, the monastic ordinances he wrote, and his disciples, who in turn founded new monasteries throughout Mesopotamia and beyond, played a decisive role in the development of Syro-Eastern monasticism. We could draw a comparison between this sixth-century father and another monastic personality better known to us westerners who, being almost contemporary with Abraham of Kashkar, reminds us in many ways of his work: Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547), who is also in a certain sense a reformer of monasticism and, especially because of his well-known monastic Rules, an inspiration for the generations to follow.

Starting therefore from the figure of the founder, Abraham of Kashkar, we will seek to trace the stages of the inner development of the Great Monastery on Mount Izla and its influences on the outside world, while also trying to place the experience of monastic life here in the wider context of monasticism and ecclesiology.