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| Chapter XXXVI. A description of the desert in Diolcos, where the anchorites live.
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Chapter XXXVI.
A description of the desert in Diolcos, where the
anchorites live.
And so when we had come,
while still beginners, from the monasteries of Palestine, to a city of
Egypt called Diolcos,871
| 871 Diolcos is
mentioned again in the Conferences XVIII. i. Sozomen (VI. xxix.) speaks
of two celebrated monasteries near there presided over by Piamun and
John. | and were
contemplating a large number of monks bound by the discipline of the
Cœnobium, 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
Cœnobia, 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.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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