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LET US pass thence to Syria and Persia, the parts adjacent to
Syria. We shall find that the monks of these countries emulated those
of Egypt in the practice of philosophy. Battheus, Eusebius,
Barges, Halas, Abbos, Lazarus, who attained the episcopal
dignity, Abdaleus, Zeno, and Heliodorus, flourished in Nisibis,
near the mountain called Sigoron. When they first entered upon the
philosophic career, they were denominated shepherds, because they had
no houses, ate neither bread nor meat, and drank no wine; but dwelt
constantly on the mountains, and passed their time in praising God by
prayers and hymns, according to the law of the Church. At the usual
hours of meals, they each took a sickle, and went to the mountain to
cut some grass on the mountains, as though they were flocks in
pasture; and this served for their repast. Such was their course of
philosophy. Eusebius voluntarily shut himself up in a cell to
philosophize, near Carrae. Protogenes dwelt in the same locality,
and ruled the church there after Vitus who was then bishop. This is
the celebrated Vitus of whom they say that when the Emperor
Constantine first saw him, he confessed that God had frequently shown
this man in appearances to him and enjoined him to obey implicitly what
he should say. Aones had a monastery in Phadana; this was the spot
where Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, on his journey from
Palestine, met the damsel whom he afterwards married, and where he
rolled away the stone, that her flock might drink of the water of the
well. It is said that Aones was the first who introduced the life
apart from all men, and the severe philosophy into Syria, just as it
was first introduced by Antony into Egypt.
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