[and during [each] evening twelve sections of the Psalter], and during [each] night twelve sections of the Psalter, and that when they came to eat they should repeat the Great Psalm.
And the blessed Pachomius said unto the angel, “The sections of the Psalter which thou hast appointed unto us [for repetition] are far too few”; and the angel said unto him, “The sections of the Psalter which I have appointed [are indeed few], so that even the monks who are small (i.e., weak) may be able to fulfil the canons, and may not be distressed thereby. For unto the perfect no law whatsoever is laid down, because their mind is at all seasons occupied with God, but this law which I have laid down for those who have not a perfect mind is laid down for them, so that although they fulfil only such things as are prescribed by the canons they can acquire openness of face.” Now very many nuns hold fast unto this law and canon.
And there were living in that mountain about seven thousand brethren, and in the monastery in which the blessed Pachomius himself lived there were living one thousand three hundred brethren; and besides these there were there also other monasteries, each containing about three hundred, or two hundred, or one hundred monks, who lived together; and they all toiled with their hands and lived thereby, and with whatsoever they possessed which was superfluous for them they provided (or fed) the nunneries which were there. Each day those whose week of service it was rose up and attended to their work; and others attended to the cooking, and others set out the tables and laid upon them bread, and cheese, and vessels of vinegar and water. And there were some monks who went in to partake of food at the third hour of the day, and others at the sixth hour, and others at the ninth hour, and others in the evening, and others who ate once a day only; and there were some who ate only once a week; and according as each one of them knew the letter which had been laid upon him, so was his work. Some worked in the paradise (i.e., the orchard), and some in the gardens, and some in the blacksmith’s shop, and some in the baker’s shop, and some in the carpenter’s shop, and some in the fuller’s shop, and some wove baskets and mats of palm leaves, and one was a maker of nets, and one was a maker of sandals, and one was a scribe; now all these men as they were performing their work were repeating the Psalms and the Scriptures in order.
And there were there large numbers of women who were nuns, and who closely followed this rule of life, and they came from the other side of the river and beyond it, and there were also married women who came from the other side of the river close by; and whensoever anyone of them died, the [other]
