Our Arrival at Diolcos and Our Welcome from Abbot Piamun

We had visited and talked with those three elders whose conferences we have tried to describe at the request of our brother Eucherius. After that we were still more eager to seek out the more distant parts of Egypt, where a larger and more perfect company of saints lived. So we came to a village named Diolcos, lying on one of the seven mouths of the river Nile, drawn not so much by the needs of our journey as by the desire to visit the saints who lived there. For when we heard of a great many very famous monasteries founded by the ancient fathers, we set out at once, like the most eager merchants, on an uncertain quest, spurred on by the hope of greater gain. We wandered about there for a good while, fixing our curious eyes on those mountains of virtue that stood out for their lofty height. Then the gaze of those around us first singled out Abbot Piamun, the oldest of all the anchorites living there and their presbyter, as if he were some tall lighthouse. [a]

For like that city in the gospel, he was set on the top of a high mountain, and at once shed his light on our faces. His virtues and miracles, which were worked by him before our very eyes, God’s grace in this way bearing witness to his excellence, we feel we must pass over in silence, if we are not to go beyond the plan and limits of this volume. For we promised to set down what we could remember, not of God’s miracles, but of the institutions and pursuits of the saints. We meant to supply our readers only with the instruction they need for the perfect life, not with material for idle and useless wonder that brings no correction of their faults. So when Abbot Piamun had welcomed us and refreshed us with fitting kindness, he understood that we were not from that country, and he first asked us carefully where we had come from and why we had come to Egypt. When he learned that we had come there from a monastery in Syria out of desire for perfection, he began as follows: