The book "Ancient Christian asceticism and the birth of monasticism" is an attempt to comprehend the genesis and main stages of the history of ancient monasticism. The work examines the main milestones in the formation of ancient church monasticism and asceticism and their most characteristic features. Within a fairly wide chronological range (I - the first half of the VI centuries), a picture of the development of monasticism in both the Christian East and the Christian West is presented, and essential moments of this development are outlined.