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And so when we had come, while still beginners, from the monasteries of
Palestine, to a city of Egypt called Diolcos, and were contemplating a
large number of monks bound by the discipline of the Coenobium, and trained
in that excellent system of monasteries, which is also the earliest, we
were also eager to see with all wisdom of heart another system as well
which is still better, viz.: that of the anchorites, as we were incited
thereto by the praises of it by everybody. For these men, having first
lived for a very long time in Coenobia, and having diligently learnt all
the rules of patience and discretion, and acquired the virtues of humility
and renunciation, and having perfectly overcome all their faults, in order
to engage in most fearful conflicts with devils, penetrate the deepest
recesses of the desert. Finding then that men of this sort were living near
the river Nile in a place which is surrounded on one side by the same
river, on the other by the expanse of the sea, and forms an island,
habitable by none but monks seeking such recesses, since the saltness of
the soil and dryness of the sand make it unfit for any cultivation--to
these men, I say, we eagerly hastened, and were beyond measure astonished
at their labours which they endure in the contemplation of the virtues and
their love of solitude. For they are hampered by such a scarcity even of
water that the care and exactness with which they portion it out is such as
no miser would bestow in preserving and hoarding the most precious kind of
wine. For they carry it three miles or even further from the bed of the
above-mentioned river, for all necessary purposes; and the distance, great
as it is, with sandy mountains in between, is doubled by the very great
difficulty of the task.
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