Persevering in the Monastery to Old Age

And I think that before anything else we ought to touch on their untiring perseverance, humility and submission: how it lasts so long, and by what system it is formed, so that they remain in the monasteries until they are bent double with old age. For it is so great that we cannot remember anyone who joined our monasteries keeping it up unbroken even for a year. So when we have seen the beginning of their renunciation of the world, we will understand how it came about that, starting from such a beginning, they reached such a height of perfection.