The Elder Who Ate Six Times and Was Still Hungry

The Institutes, the Conferences and On the Incarnation

The Institutes, Book 5

The Elder Who Ate Six Times and Was Still Hungry

Once, while I was taking a meal, one of the elders was urging me to eat a little more. When I said that I could not, he replied: “I have already set my table six times for different brothers who arrived. I urged each of them to eat, and ate with him, and I am still hungry. And do you, who are eating now for the first time, say that you cannot eat any more?”