Note 032 The Pagan Zosimus mentions their sanctuary and pilgrimage. The sister of Rufinus, Sylvania, who passed her life at Jerusalem, is famous in monastic history. 1. The studious virgin had diligently, and even repeatedly, perused the commentators on the Bible, Origen, Gregory, Basil, etc., to the amount of five millions of lines. 2. At the age of threescore she could boast that she had never washed her hands, face, or any part of her whole body, except the tips of her fingers, to receive the communion. See the Vitae Patrum, p. 779, 977.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 29