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AFTER visiting and conversing with those three Elders, whose
Conferences we have at the instance of our brother Eucherius tried to
describe, as we were still more ardently desirous to seek out the further
parts of Egypt, in which a larger and more perfect company of saints dwelt,
we came--urged not so much by the necessities of our journey as by the
desire of visiting the saints who were dwelling there--to a village named
Diolcos, lying on one of the seven mouths of the river Nile. For when
we heard of very many and very celebrated monasteries rounded by the
ancient fathers, like most eager merchants, at once we undertook the
journey on an uncertain quest, urged on by the hope of greater gain. And
when we wandered about there for some long time and fixed our curious eyes
on those mountains of virtue conspicuous for their lofty height, the gaze
of those around first singled out Abbot Piamun, the senior of all the
anchorites living there and their presbyter, as if he were some tall
lighthouse. For he was set on the top of a high mountain like that city in
the gospel, and at once shed his light on our faces, whose virtues and
miracles, which were wrought by him under our very eyes, Divine Grace thus
bearing witness to his excellence, if we are not to exceed the plan and
limits of this volume, we feel we must pass over in silence. For we
promised to commit to memory what we could recollect, not of the miracles
of God, but of the institutes and pursuits of the saints, so as to supply
our readers merely with necessary instruction for the perfect life, and not
with matter for idle and useless admiration without any correction of their
faults. And so when Abbot Piamun had received us with welcome, and had
refreshed us with becoming kindness, as he understood that we were not of
the same country, he first asked us anxiously whence or why we had visited
Egypt, and when he discovered that we had come thither from a monastery in
Syria out of desire for perfection he began as follows: --
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