Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book VI/Chapter 33
Chapter XXXIII.—Monks of Syria and Persia: Battheus, Eusebius, Barges, Halas, Abbo, Lazarus, Abdaleus, Zeno, Heliodorus, Eusebius of Carræ, Protogenes, and Aones.
Let us pass thence to Syria and Persia,[1]
the parts adjacent to Syria. We shall find that the monks of these countries emulated those of Egypt in the practice of philosophy. Battheus, Eusebius, Barges, Halas, Abbos, Lazarus, who attained the episcopal dignity, Abdaleus, Zeno, and Heliodorus, flourished in Nisibis, near the mountain called Sigoron. When they first entered upon the philosophic career, they were denominated shepherds, because they had no houses, ate neither bread nor meat, and drank no wine; but dwelt constantly on the mountains, and passed their time in praising God by prayers and hymns, according to the law of the Church. At the usual hours of meals, they each took a sickle, and went to the mountain to cut some grass on the mountains, as though they were flocks in pasture; and this served for their repast. Such was their course of philosophy. Eusebius voluntarily shut himself up in a cell to philosophize, near Carræ.[2]
Protogenes dwelt in the same locality, and ruled the church there after
Vitus who was then bishop. This is the celebrated Vitus of whom they
say that when the Emperor Constantine first saw him, he confessed that
God had frequently shown this man in appearances to him and enjoined
him to obey implicitly what he should say. Aones had a monastery in
Phadana; this was the spot where Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, on his
journey from Palestine, met the damsel whom he afterwards married, and
where he rolled away the stone, that her flock might drink of the water
of the well. It is said that Aones was the first who introduced the
life apart from all men, and the severe philosophy into Syria, just as
it was first introduced by Antony into Egypt.