The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults

And I think that before anything else we ought to touch on their untiring perseverance and humility and subjection,—how it lasts for so long, and by what system it is formed, through which they remain in the monasteries till they are bent double with old age; for it is so great that we cannot recollect any one who joined our monasteries keeping it up unbroken even for a year: so that when we have seen the beginning of their renunciation of the world, we shall understand how it came about that, starting from such a commencement, they reached such a height of perfection.