AN INJUNCTION OF ABBA JOHN OF PETRA
Together with my colleague, Sophronios, I approached Abba John of Petra and asked him to speak a saying for us. The elder said: "Love poverty and continence. I tell you that when I was at Scété as a young man, one of the fathers had a disorder of the spleen. They tried to find some vinegar in the four lavras of Scété, and not a drop was there to be found, so great were the poverty and the continence of those who lived there. There were about three thousand five hundred fathers there."