The Lausiac History

"Tabennesis is an island in the Thebaid so called" original Greek: Ταβεννησίς ἐστι νῆσος ἐν τῇ Θηβαΐδι οὕτω καλουμένη ] One should write: "It is a certain Tabenna" original Latin: Scrib. Ταβέννη τίς ἐστι. For this place was called Tabenna, not Tabennesis, and the monks living there were known as Tabennesians. Sozomen A 5th-century historian of the Christian Church, Book 3, chapter 14: "He stayed on the island of Tabenna in the Thebaid, from which they are still called Tabennesians to this day." original Greek: διέτριβε δὲ ἐν Ταβέννη νήσῳ τῆς Θηβαΐδος, ὅθεν Ταβεννησιῶται εἰσέτι νῦν ὀνομάζονται. Nicephorus Nicephorus Callistus, a 14th-century Byzantine historian, Book 9, chapter 14: "In the Thebaid, however, Philosophy In this context, "Philosophy" refers to the ascetic or monastic life had its workshop on a certain island called Tabenna: from which they are called Tabennesians even to this point."

"in which Pachomius became a monk" original Greek: ἐν ᾧ Παχώμιος γέγονεν μοναχὸς ] See Sozomen and Nicephorus in the passages just cited; and the Menologium A collection of lives of the saints arranged by month for the 15th day of May. Jerome also mentions him in his Epitaph for Marcella.

"belted linen tunics" original Greek: λεβιτῶνας λινὲς ἐζωσμένους; "levitons" were sleeveless linen tunics worn by Egyptian monks ] We have spoken of this word in our Glossary.

"and let them enter only with hoods" original Greek: καὶ μετὰ κουκουλλίων μόνα εἰσίτωσαν ] On this garment of the monks, see Cassian’s On the Institutes of Monks, Book 1, chapter 4, and our Glossary.

"and twelve at the lamp-lighting" original Greek: καὶ ἐν τῷ λυχνικῷ δώδεκα ] For what the lychnikon The service of the lighting of the lamps, roughly equivalent to Vespers is, see our Glossary.

"now there is a second-in-command in that monastery" original Greek: νυνὶ δευτεράριον ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ μοναστηρίῳ ἐκείνῳ ] This "second-in-command" Greek: δευτεράριος; a deputy abbot or administrator is mentioned by Gregory in On the Lives of the Saints, Book 1: "In the times of King Totila, there was a second-in-command in the monastery of Fuodesinus." original Latin: ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις Τωτίλα τοῦ ῥηγὸς ἦν δευτεράριος ἐν τῇ μονῇ τοῦ Φουωδεσίνου.

"Twelve camel-drivers" original Greek: Καμηλαρίους δώδεκα ] In the Middle Ages, the Greeks called someone a kamēlarios whom the ancients called a kamēlités. John Moschus also uses it in the Limonarion The "Spiritual Meadow," a collection of tales about desert monks, chapter 107: "Behold, a camel-driver coming from Arabia [found a lost donkey and] took it—"