CHAPTER LIV

OF THE BLESSED MAN SOLOMON

NOW I went about in Antinoë of the Thebaïd for a period of four years, and I learned concerning the whole of the system of the religious houses which were there; for there dwelt by the side of the city about twelve hundred men, who worked with their hands, and who lived the life of spiritual excellence. Among these there was a number of solitary monks who shut themselves up in caves, and among them was one who was called Solomon; he was a chaste and humble man, andunto him was given the gift of patient endurance. He used to say that he had passed fifty years in the cave, during which time he had fed himself by means of his labour, and he could repeat the Scriptures by heart.