FROM The lives of the Fathers of the Eastern Deserts, or, The wonders of God in the wilderness by Richard Challoner:
Accordingly, as often as be could hear of any one that labored with more diligence than ordinary in the pursuit of virtue and perfection, he was sure to visit him, and to seek in his conversation and method of life, some lesson for his own instruction and edification. In the meantime he labored with his own hands for his daily food; and all that he gained over and above what was necessary to purchase his pittance of bread, he gave to the poor. He prayed very much, and endeavoring quite to forget the world and all his worldly kindred, he turned all his affections and desires towards purchasing the hidden treasure of true wisdom, and the precious pearl of divine love. In order to [do] this he gave diligent attention to the word of God, contained in the holy Scriptures, which he heard, and by meditating thereon, laid up all these precepts of our Lord in such a manner in his soul, as never to forget any of them; but to have them always written in his memory, as in a book. He envied no one, but had always a great deference for the other servants of God ; and was continually studying to remark those virtues, in which each one of them excelled, in order to imitate them; and thus assemble as it were, and unite together in himself the different perfections which he observed in the rest. Thus he quickly outstripped them all: and yet remained always most humble, meek, and full of brotherly love and charity, so as to be ever most dear to them alL
