VITA E
A it was Egypt, it sat; owing to the multitude of Persians there, it was called Cellia or the Cells, which, by that same author, were said to have been distant nearly ten miles from Nitria in the inner desert. Whence it is gathered that the habitation of the Alexandrian, although Nitria was situated in the middle of both, was certainly not very far removed from the monasteries of the Egyptian. Such, however, was the fame of the two Macarii among the brothers of that region, that certain fathers in the Cells would relate to that same author that two Macarii had shone in those places like two lights of heaven, and Palladius, who had lived for three years in the Cells together with Macarius the Alexandrian, relating their praises, thought that he stood in need of a singular introduction, lest, in telling such great things, he should appear to be lying. The severity of life at that time flourished as almost incredible in the innumerable monasteries of Egypt, to which must be referred the frequent and long fasts, the abstinence from almost all flesh, the vigils, the dwelling in cells in which the body could scarcely be moved, and other things which were accustomed to be practiced more harshly in the monasteries. From the monks living in the monasteries must be distinguished the hermits, who, for the sake of greater spiritual perfection, with the consent of the abbot, betook themselves into the inner solitude, where, inhabiting a small cell, they received every day water sent from the monastery along with bread; but sometimes they themselves would choose a watery place where they might sow and prepare bread with their own hand. But the eremitic life B was very frequently used even by the abbots or the elders of the monasteries, so much so that they would betake themselves into a cell near the monastery, which indeed we read was related of St. Anthony, Macarius the Egyptian, and others. Finally, the anchorites used to surpass by far the severity of the hermits, for they—frequently spending almost their whole life in the inner solitude without any help of man, often for fifty years and more—would see no man’s face, feeding on roots, fruits, and herbs. And they bore the burning fire of the sun, the heat of thirst, and the lack of water, not without joy, in honor of Christ. Sometimes a traveler, journeying through the desert, would happen upon them before their death, as if sent by God, who would refresh them in their last hour and bury them in an honorable tomb. But that the brothers in the monasteries always walked with bare feet and leaning on staves, had their head covered with a cowl and their shoulders with a scapular, their body girt with a belt, and, moreover, wore a melote—that is, a sheepskin—is narrated most copiously by Evagrius, Cassian, and in the *Vitas Patrum* of the Rosweydian edition.
§ 3. To describe more fully in this place the solitary life in Egypt of the fourth century and how it spread thence far and wide into Syria and Palestine is foreign to our purpose. Although we have thought those few things should be added. The father of the monastic institution in Egypt was St. Anthony the Great; for C not yet [before him] were there such frequent monasteries in Egypt, nor did anyone at all know of the wild solitude, but he who...