Sir, – In light of Covid-19, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) recently issued a warning about people congregating in large numbers in rural areas, at beauty spots and on remote walking trails.
This reminded me of how, during the fourth-century growth of ascetic monasticism in the wilderness, the writer Athanasius of Alexandria claimed that so many people were inspired to join the famous hermit Antony of Egypt in solitude that they ended up turning the desert into a city. – Yours, etc,
Prof SALVADOR RYAN,
Maynooth,
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Co Kildare.