These caves Cuthbert knew had formerly
been the abode of hermits. It was supposed to be an essentially sacred
locality, and between the third and fourth centuries of Christianity
some twenty thousand monks had lived solitary lives on the banks of that
river. Far away he saw the ruins of a great monastery, called Mar Saba,
which had for a long time been the abode of a religious community, and
which at the present day is still tenanted by a body of monks. Cuthbert
made up his mind at once to take refuge in these caves. He speedily
picked out one some fifty feet up the face of the rock, and
approachable only with the greatest difficulty and by a sure foot. First
he made the ascent to discover the size of the grotto, and found that
although the entrance was but four feet high and two feet wide, it
opened into an area of considerable dimensions. Far in the corner, when
his eyes became accustomed to the light, he discovered a circle of
ashes, and his conjectures that these caves had been the abode of men
were therefore verified.
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