Reading at Meals and the Egyptians’ Silence

We have been told that the practice of reading the holy lessons in the coenobia while the brothers are eating did not begin in the Egyptian system but in the Cappadocian. And there is no doubt that they meant to establish it, not so much for the sake of spiritual exercise, as to put a stop to needless and idle talk, and especially to the arguments that so often arise at meals. They saw that these could not be prevented among them in any other way. [a]

For among the Egyptians, and especially those of Tabenna, all keep so strict a silence that when a great number of the brothers have sat down together to a meal, no one dares to speak even in a low voice except the dean. Even he, if he sees that something needs to be put on the table or taken off it, shows it by a sign rather than a word. While they are eating, the rule of this silence is kept so strictly that they draw their hoods down over their eyelids, so that their roving eyes have no chance to wander about with curiosity. They can see nothing except the table and the food that is set on it and that they take from it, so that no one notices what another is eating.