Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

Desert Monasteries. 287
the convents bear the marks of various styles, and
date from different epochs : most of them have long
been under the shadow of decay, and lately one has
suffered severely under sentence of restoration. But
the traditions of the place remain unbroken, and
fadeless as the scene that enshrines them. The life
too, in its outer guise at least, is scarcely altered since
the dawn of monasticism ; though the high ideals of
the early recluses are long since levelled with the
dust, though their heroic enthusiasms have sunk
down to a dull stagnation, though the lamp of their
of their
knowledge is extinguished, and the pulse
devotion is still.
The monasteries lie to
three days' journey in the
the north-west of Cairo,
Libyan desert. Of the
fifty mentioned by Gibbon only four now remain inhabited
: most of the others have vanished and left
no vestige behind 1 . Vansleb 2 mentions seven as
having formerly existed, namely Macarius, John the
Little, Anba Bishoi, Timothy, Anba Musa, Anba
Kaima, and Suriani, of which, he adds, only Bishoi
and Suriani now survive : an obvious error, for
besides Macarius there is still left one other called
Al Baramus, which lies nearest to the Natrun lakes.
The locality is variously termed the desert of Scete,
desert of Schiet, desert of Nitria, and Wadi Natrun
or Natrun valley : it seems however that the name
Scete applies more properly to the southerly part of
1 Gibbon probably derived his information from Rufinus, who
speaks of fifty
'
tabernacula,' adding that some of these had many
tenants, others but few, while some held solitary recluses. It is
clear therefore that single cells or caves were included in the term.
See Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 364.
*
Voyage fait en Egypte, p. 227.