Pherme

{{Short description|Former settlement in Egypt}}

Pherme was the location of a community of ascetic monks in the Nile Delta in Egypt{{cite journal |last1=Hedrich |first1=T. |last2=Brooks Hedstrom |first2=D. |last3=Davis |first3=S. J. |title=A Geophysical Survey of Ancient Pherme: Magnetic Prospection at an Early Christian Monastic Site in the Egyptian Delta |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |date=2007 |volume=44 |pages=129–137}}{{cite book |last1=David |first1=S.J. |editor1-last=Weidemann |editor1-first=H-U. |title=Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity |date=2013 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |location=Göttingen |pages=334–373 |chapter=Completing the Race and Receiving the Crown: 2 Timothy 4:7-8 in Early Christian Monastic Epitaphs at Kellia and Pherme}} which grew after the 4th century CE as a satellite community of the better known community of Kellia ('the cells').

The site of the monastic remains at Pherme, located {{convert|11|km|mi}} southeast of central Kellia, escaped some of the water damage suffered by the lower Kellia site because of its higher elevation.{{cite web |title=Kellia and Pherme |url=https://egyptology.yale.edu/expeditions/current-expeditions/yale-monastic-archaeology-project-north-wadi-al-natrun/kellia-and-pherme |website=Yale Monastic Archaeology Project |accessdate=19 July 2020}} Today the site contains some 115 monastic hermitages, only ten of which were excavated by Swiss archaeologists during digs from 1987 to 1989.

Pherme is mentioned in the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) as the dwelling of several Desert Fathers, including Abba Theodore of Pherme and Abba Lucius.{{cite web |title=Apophthegmata Patrum Sahidic 034: Theodorus |url=http://data.copticscriptorium.org/urn:cts:copticLit:ap.34.monbeg |website=Coptic Scriptorium |accessdate=19 July 2020}}