they might not leave the house of prayer without divine solemnities; and each of them fed himself even as he could or would: some bare with them a sufficiency for the body, some apples of the palm-trees [dates], some beans moistened with water, some nothing save the body alone and the garment, but they were fed with [that which] might wait upon the necessity of nature, that is. with the herbs which grew in the desert; and there each one bound himself in self-denial, even as it seemed well to him, so that none of them knew the ways or deeds of others. "When they had gone over the river Jordan, then each one sundered himself far from the others, and none of them joined himself again to his companions; but if any of them saw another afar [coming] towards him, immediately he turned out of his [chosen] direction, and went another way, and lived by himself, and continued in perpetual prayers and fastings. Verily after accomplishing the fast in this manner, they returned again to the minster before the Lord's resurrection-day, that is to say, on the festival which we commonly call Palm-day; each one had within himself, in his own conscience, the witness of his own labour, as to what he was employed in, and the seeds of what labours he was sowing; and none of them asked another in what wise he had fulfilled the conflict of the labour.
Verily this was the rule of the minster, and thus perfectly was each one preserved, as I before said, so that he joined himself to God in the desert; and they fought with themselves in order that they might not please men, but only God Himself.
Then verily Zosimus, according to the customary law of the minster, went over the river Jordan, having with him a very little for the necessities of the body; and in the observance of his rule went across the desert, taking at due time a meal, and [supplying] the necessity of nature, sitting at night upon the earth, and resting little; and he slept wheresoever the close of evening found him.
And again, in the early morning, [he kept] proceeding on his journey as he was unceasingly determined, and going about, because he desired, as he said afterwards, to meet a father in the desert
