<The liturgy in the monastery was performed in several languages.> ... (Theodosius) set up four churches in the monastery: one, in which a multitude of fathers, as is written, ‘offers to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving’ <Ps. 50:14> separately, in the Greek language; another, where the people of the Bessians ‘pays his vows to the Most High’ <ibid.> in their own tongue; another, in which the Armenians are continuously busy singing hymns and offer their song to the common Maker in their own language; and another church, where the brothers tortured by the unclean spirit, as we mentioned above, together with those consecrated to their service, offer their thanksgiving (eujcaristiva) to the Saviour Christ, perhaps recovering their lucidity only for this purpose, for which they indeed were born. And so in these churches the sacred office of the psalmody is performed seven times a day, as is said: ‘praising the Maker of all the universe’ <cf. Apoc. 4:11>. As to the assembly of the holy communion, each (group) performs in its own holy church the whole sequence of the liturgy, from the beginning as far as the reading of the divine Gospels: then all, except the brothers possessed by the devil, gather in the great church of the Greeks and there they take part in the divine mysteries of our God Christ. Who will not turn his mind to wonder, seeing this holy flock, which began through the efforts of one shepherd who knew how to graze it with God, and left to the sweet shepherd after him such a large (flock). numbering more than 400 men? for I leave out those who migrated from this life up to the time of our leader’s departure: these number 693. And need I mention those who later embraced the solitary life, and those who shone as leaders of others, as bishops and hegumens? I am unable to fix the precise number of the many (leaders) who came out of this monastery each at his turn, over such a long period of about 80 years: therefore, I shall pass over their number in silence, except for saying that almost every country had a share in their helpful leadership, so that through these men the fame of the father who had begotten them in God spread to the whole world.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)