The Way of a Pilgrim
written in the 19th century
by an anonymous writer, (Russian traveler? Greek monk?), someone fairly knowledgeable.
Setting is Russia.
Ideas taken from Orthodox Christian tradition, particularly the Philokalia, which advocates the ideas of hesychasm;
Focus of The Way of a Pilgrim is prayer, constant prayer, particularly using "the Jesus Prayer" as a mantra.
The experiences described by the Pilgrim is resonant of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
J.D. Salinger used The Way of a Pilgrim in his Fanny and Zooey.

This sounds like a book I would enjoy reading immensely.

Little Flowers

from Russell's Spiritual Classics:

The Little Flowers of St. Francis

Who:  Anonymous
What:  stories of Saint Francis and others of his "motley crew" !
Where:  Italy
When:  14th century
How:  originally in Umbrian?
Why:  accounts of the early Franciscan movement

As regards St. Francis, I've only yet read Chesterton's work.  I look forward to getting a copy of the Little Flowers; I'm sure I will treasure it.  There are many editions from which to choose!

Desert Fathers

Spiritual Classics; the thinking person's guide to great spiritual books
edited by James M. Russell
Magpie Books. London
copyright 2009

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Latin name: Apophthegmata Patrum
Time-frame: 3rd/ 4th centuries
Locale: desert regions of Egypt
Original Source(s): passed down from the Coptic Church

"The basic idea of the fathers -- that we can ascend to God through a mixture of self-sacrifice, abstinence, and meditation leading to spiritual progress -- became a fundamental model of Christian practice that is still influential today."

Collections:
Amazon lists over 1,000 collections edited by various writers; some of the 1,000 being multiple versions of one editor.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_16/185-7735205-4355945?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sayings+of+the+desert+fathers&sprefix=Sayings+of+the+d%2Caps%2C330#/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Asayings+of+the+desert+fathers&keywords=sayings+of+the+desert+fathers&ie=UTF8&qid=1334003114

Here is one of Merton's.

I'm not sure how I will choose my edition!!!  I always lean toward's Merton, but each collection has a unique vantage point.

Troubadours and Lovers

Chesterton characterized St. Francis in this way:

He was, to the last agonies of asceticism, a Troubadour.  He was a Lover.  He was a lover of God and he was really and truly a lover of men; possibly a much rarer mystical vocation.

In describing "the problem of St. Francis" he gives the clue to resolving that problem: "the clue to the asceticism and all the rest can best be found in the stories of lovers..."  All of St. Francis' seeming contradictions are "resolved in the simplicity of any noble love; only this was so noble a love that nine men out of ten have hardly even heard of it."

As Chesterton explains the purpose of his book, he advises:
"The reader cannot even begin to see the sense of a story that may well seem to him a very wild one, until he understands that to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair."  He also reveals his personal motivation: "...my only claim even to attempt such a task is that I myself have for so long been in various stages of such a condition..."

God bless you Mr. Chesterton!