When the time arrived for the rotation of offices, in the first indiction <1 Sept. 492>, the newly appointed steward (of the Great Laura) appointed the great luminary (John the Hesychast) keeper of the hostel and cook. He took up this duty with zeal and joy, and would look after all the fathers with his services and attend each with great humility and docility. During the time when he performed this office, the construction of the monastery which lies outside the laura to the north happened to be under way: (this monastery) serves the purpose of (housing) the laymen who renounce the life of the world in order to teach them the monastic discipline first, before they are admitted to the Laura, after they have learned the cenobitic rule to perfection. For the blessed Sabas maintained that, as the flower precedes the growth of the fruit, so the cenobitic life must precede the solitary life. Now, when this coenobium was being built, the righteous man (John), as hostel keeper, aside from all the other duties of the hostel, had to cook for the workmen, and then, loading himself with the cooked food and the other supplies, to bear that burden (over his shoulders) and bring it to the labourers, who were (at work) at a distance of about ten stadia from the hostel.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)