Conferences of John Cassian - Part III
John Cassian (360–435)
XVIII. Conference of Abbot Piamun.
On the Three Sorts of Monks.
Chapter I.
How we came to Diolcos and were received by Abbot Piamun.
After visiting and conversing with those three Elders, whose Conferences we have at the instance of our brother Eucherius tried to describe, as we were still more ardently desirous to seek out the further parts of Egypt, in which a larger and more perfect company of saints dwelt, we came - urged not so much by the necessities of our journey as by the desire of visiting the saints who were dwelling there - to a village named Diolcos, lying on one of the seven mouths of the river Nile. For when we heard of very many and very celebrated monasteries rounded by the ancient fathers, like most eager merchants, at once we undertook the journey on an uncertain quest, urged on by the hope of greater gain.And when we wandered about there for some long time and fixed our curious eyes on thosemountains of virtue conspicuous for their lofty height, the gaze of those around first singled out Abbot Piamun, the senior of all the anchorites living there and their presbyter, as if he were some tall lighthouse. For he was set on the top of a high mountain like that city in…
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