(81) A long time later, the steward of the Great Laura rented some Saracen camels, intending to carry in from the Dead Sea the corn bought in Machaeron. Now, when the loaded camels arrived at the Laura, one of the beasts turned aside to the right from the road leading to the hostel, and fell from the cliff into the ravine with its load. The cliff rises there to about ten times the stature of a man. The owner of the camel, who was a Saracen, shouted out: “Abba, Sabas, your prayers will help my camel.” and while the camel rolled down he yelled: “Abba Sabas, help!” And he saw an old man of a saintly countenance, sitting on the saddle of the rolling camel. He ran down by another route and, reaching the camel, he did not find the old man who was riding it, but the camel was safe and sound with all its load. He raised the beast and by a leveller route brought it back to the hostel, where he unloaded it. This barbarian, amazed at this incredible miracle, comes to the Laura every year to worship the grave of the Elder and to give a thanksgiving offering of one tremissis (1/3 of solidus) from his own toil to whoever is steward at the time.
(82) During the same year, a great reservoir was built under the tower of our holy father Sabas, in the cave where a hidden ascent led from the church built by God to the tower itself. In the overhanging rock higher up the fathers had a pool built, in order that the water should first be purified in it, then, so (strained), flow down into the reservoir. A certain Mamas from Bethlehem, a plasterer by trade, did the work of the reservoir and the pool. While he was busy with the finish of the pool, together with an apprentice, a boy called Auxentius, a storm broke out and the rain-water began to gather (in the reservoir); but, because of the excessive flow of waters, the fabric of the pool cracked. Mamas, being an adult, easily succeeded in escaping the danger, but the boy, overtaken by the collapse of the stones and (by the cascade) of raging water, was carried off from the cliff down to the inner court that opens between the two churches, where the venerable body of our holy father Sabas is buried: the height of the cliff is about ten fathoms. But, after the rain stopped, the boy was found safe and sound under the collapsed stones, in front of the church built by God. Of this miracle I myself was a witness, having come from the New Laura to the Great Laura in those very days, intending to procure a place and build a cell for myself …
(transl. Leah Di Segni)