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| Chapter I. How we came to Diolcos and were received by Abbot Piamun.
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Chapter I.
How we came to Diolcos and were received by Abbot
Piamun.2071
| 2071 Piamun, who has been
already spoken of in XVII. xxiv., is also mentioned by Rufinus (History
of the Monks, c. xxxii.), Palladius (the Lausiac History, clxxii.), and
Sozomen (H. E. VI. xxix.), all of whom tell, with slight variations,
the same story, how that one day while he was officiating at the altar,
he saw an angel writing down the names of some of the brethren, and
passing by the names of others, all of whom Piamun on subsequent
inquiry found to have been guilty of some grievous sin. |
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,2072
| 2072 On Diolcos see on
the Institutes V. xxxvi. | lying on one of
the seven mouths of the river Nile. For when we heard of very many and
very celebrated monasteries founded 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,2073
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:—E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
