(22) <After having founded the monastery of Douka, Chariton is oppressed by a crowd of visitors.> Therefore Chariton removed himself from that place as well, after having instructed these disciples too as to the best way for cell-dwellers to defeat the devil's tricks, and, having handed over the reins of the direction of the brethren to the man immediately after him, he went off to another deserted spot, fourteen stadia, more or less, from the estate called Thecoa. The Savior of all the universe was pleased to shift him from place to place, so that his servant should become famous everywhere, and those who came to him would be hallowed by his holy prayers and would believe in the Savior Lord – for almost all the population was then pagan – and be freed from the passions that had them in bondage.
(23) So once more, many brethren gathered around Chariton and renounced the worldly bustle through him, and set out to keep the Lord's commands through the practice of monastic life; for, when they heard their instructor teaching that sacred oracle that says: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth: let him sit alone” <Lam. 39:27-28>, they put it into practical effect. So Chariton established a holy laura there too. This laura is given the name of Souka by some, who use, as they say, the Syriac dialect, whereas others call it in Greek “Old Laura”.
(transl. Di Segni)
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