Chapter vii. Concerning the Monks Who Lived in Nitria
NOW having held converse with many of the saints, and having gone round about among the monasteries which were nigh unto Alexandria for three years, & having met about two thousand of the great and strenuous men who lived there, and who were adorned with the excellence of spiritual lives, I departed from there and came to Mount Nitria. Now between this mountain and Alexandria there lieth a certain lake which is called “Mareotis,” which embraceth a space of seventy miles. And having seated myself in a boat I crossed this lake in a day and a half, and I came unto the mountain to the south, whereunto is joined the desert which reacheth unto Cush (Ethiopia). In this mountain of the Mazaki and of the Mauritanians there live excellent men who are adorned with divers kinds of ascetic virtues; and every monk leadeth the ascetic life as he wisheth and as he is able, either by himself or in a community. Now in this mountain there are seven bakers who make bread and who minister unto them, and unto the chosen men of the inner desert, of whom there are six hundred, and also unto the people of that mountain. And when I had dwelt in this mountain for a year, and had profited by the fathers, the pious and blessed men, I mean Rabbâ Barsîs [i.e., Arsisius], and Bûsîrîs, and Petâ-Bast, and Agîôs, and Khrônîs, and Serapion, the elder, and had learned from them also concerning the ancient and first spiritual fathers [who had lived there], I entered into the inner desert wherein is Mount Nitria.
In this mountain is a great church, and in the courtyard thereof are three palm trees, in each of which hangeth a whip. One of these is for the correcting of the monks who transgress through folly; the second is for the punishing of the thieves if they be found falling on the place; and the third is for the chastising of the strangers who flock there and who transgress in any matter whatsoever. And it is the same with anyone who shall commit any offence, they bring him to the palm tree and punish him, and he receiveth upon his back the number of stripes which they have appointed unto him. Adjoining the church is a house in which the strangers who arrive there may lodge, and if any man wisheth to work [there] one year, or two, or until he departeth of his own accord [he may do so]; and every week of days they permit him to rest, so that he may do nothing, but they give him work during the remaining days of the week, either among the bakers, or in the refectory. And if there was among these anyone who was sufficiently
