<On the Feast of Dedication (13-14 September) of AD 506 Sabas came to Jerusalem from his monastery near Nicopolis-Emmaus, and was sent back to the Great Laura by the Patriarch, Elias, with a letter ordering the monks of the Great laura to submit to Sabas or leave the place.>
The hallowed Sabas, taking with him the Patriarch’s letter, went back to his own Laura. When the letter was read in church, those excellent fellows were enraged, and blinded by their own evil, the sixty (rebellious monks) banded together with one accord and drew up in fighting order as in a war, against the holy father. Some of them made ready the clothes of the whole company and all their baggage, the others got hold of axes, shovels, pick-axes and bars, went up to Sabas’ tower and razed it to the ground in a frenzied rage, then threw the wood (rafters) and the stones of the building down into the ravine. Then they left with their baggage and made for the Laura of Souka, and asked to stay there. But holy Aquilinus, who held the abbacy of Souka at the time, hearing their story sent them away and refused to receive them.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)