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| Chapter XXII. How the brethren in Egypt work with their hands, not only to supply their own needs, but also to minister to those who are in prison.
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Chapter XXII.
How the brethren in Egypt work with their hands, not
only to supply their own needs, but also to minister to those who are
in prison.
And so taught by these
examples the Fathers in Egypt never allow monks, and especially the
younger ones, to be idle,999
| 999 The monks of Egypt
were famous for their labours, and Cassian’s language might be
illustrated from many passages in the Fathers; e.g., Epiphanius, in his
third book against heresies, compares the monks, and especially those
in Egypt, to bees, because of their diligence. So S. Jerome, writing to
Rusticus (Ep. cxxv.), says that no one is received in a monastery in
Egypt unless he will work, and that this rule is made for the good of
the soul rather than for the sake of providing food. Compare also
Sozomen H. E. VI. xxviii., where it is said of Serapion and his
followers in the neighbourhood of Arsinöe that “they lived
on the produce of their labour and provided for the poor. During
harvest-time they busied themselves in reaping: they set aside
sufficient corn for their own use, and furnished grain gratuitously for
the other monks.” S. Basil also, in his Monastic Constitutions
cc. iv. and v., speaks strongly of the value of labour and the Rule of
S. Benedict (c. xlviii.) enjoins that “as idleness is the enemy
of the soul, the brethren are to be employed alternately in manual
labour and pious reading.” | estimating the
purpose of their hearts and their growth in patience and humility by
their diligence in work; and they not only do not allow them to receive
anything from another to supply their own wants, but further, they not
merely refresh pilgrims and brethren who come to visit them by means of
their labours, but actually collect an enormous store of provisions and
food, and distribute it in the parts of Libya which suffer from famine
and barrenness, and also in the cities, to those who are pining away in
the squalor of prison; as they believe that by such an offering of the
fruit of their hands they offer a reasonable and true sacrifice to the
Lord.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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