Translated from the Sahidic Coptic (White Monastery codex MONB.BV 283–284, Amélineau, Oeuvres de Schenoudi 1:8–11) by Claude, 2026-07-12. To my knowledge no published English translation exists. A remarkable fragment: Shenoute legislating the sick-ration for his monasteries — fish brine, cheese, eggs, and the wine allowance. uncertain renderings are flagged in the numbered footnotes, [...] marks gaps.
Of Shenoute.
I have been considering, these some years now, how to keep anyone from finding a word to say against us in any fashion. For I know that no truth will come about among men without true measure — above all in a multitude with no one steering them with fairness: they will be like a ship riddled through with leaks, whose sailing you could not trust1 from this shore to the other shore of the sea — not to speak of its open deep.
Some tell lies about bodily [needs2]; others grumble over these same occasions. Some want to steal — or are indeed stealing; others hunt for fault. Some deal in falsehoods, others carry an estranged heart. Some want some good thing for themselves alone; others complain that they get no rest of their own, whether they are sick or whether they are well. For this is what happens among many peoples who say they are in fellowship with one another, and yet do not walk uprightly. No man who is in fellowship in truth will ever make his rest for himself alone, abandoning those who are in every fellowship with him. The fellowship that is perfect is to live in this single equality — and woe to those who dwell in these monasteries at any time, if they come to live by any other fashion, by partiality toward persons.
For this reason I ordain that these three kinds remain in these monasteries for the sake of those who are sick within them at all times: the fish-brine3; the halom-cheese, in whatever way it is wanted, whether dry or soft; and eggs — whether soft-cooked, or if they want them beaten4 into a simmered vegetable dish5, or in whatever way they are wanted.
Only: no one is to eat things of this kind among us at any time, whether man or woman, apart from those who are truly sick — this having been verified through all the faithful brothers, and above all by the fathers of these monasteries at all times, they who shall render account to God for those gathered within them. No one shall eat such things in any place except the place of the sick alone. And those who ask for the ration6 of wine shall be asked about like the others, and shall likewise be in the place of the service, so that he who governs — or shall govern — these monasteries at any time may give them what they need, having seen what sort the man is, and what his sickness is, through thirteen men among us at all times standing as witnesses to what has come in for needs of this kind, that these things be given to them in true measure, in the fear of God — lest we all fall into his hands7 at that moment when no man will be able to think of lying down to sleep, whether man or woman, within these congregations.
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"trust" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"needs" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"fish-brine" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"beaten" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"dish" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"ration" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩
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"hands" — rendering uncertain; a specialist should check this against the original. ↩