Ignacio Peña was born in Spain and is a Franciscan brother. He lived in Syria between 1960 and 1982, and has specialized in the study of the history and archaeology of the Christian East, and particularly of Byzantine Syria. He has published widely on the subject, including the books Les Stylites Syriens; Les Reclus Syriens; Les Cénobites Syriens; Inventaire du Jébel Baricha and Inventaire du Jébel el-Ela, all co-written with P. Castellana and R. Fernández as part of a team which has been studying and cataloguing the archaeological remains of the Dead Cities since 1970. His most recent work was The Amazing Life of the Syrian Monks in the 4th to 6th Centuries. He now lives in Jerusalem and has been the director of the biblical journal Tierra Santa since 1982.