Sarabaites

"Sarabaites, the most detestable kind of monk, ... lie to God by their tonsure. ... Their law is what they like to do, whatever strikes their fancy. Anything they believe in and choose, they call holy; anything they dislike, they consider forbidden."

"They are anxious to be reckoned by the name of monks without emulating their pursuits."

"The whole monastic life consists of three specific kinds of establishment: either the retirement and solitude of a spiritual athlete, or living in silence with one or two others, or settling patiently in a community. Turn not to the right or to the left, but follow the Kings highway. Of the three ways of life stated above, the second is suitable for many people, for it is said: Woe unto him when he falleth into despondency or lethargy or laziness or despair, and hath not another among them to lift him up (Eccl. 4:10). For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them, said the Lord (Mt. 18:20)."

"St. Klimakos exhorts us: Do not turn to the right or to the left, as Solomon puts it (cf. Prov. 4:27), but rather travel the royal road, living in stillness with one or two others, neither alone in the desert or in great company; for the mean between these two is suited to most men."

"Sarabaites, who live together in twos and threes, doing what they consider right, remind us of cliques and factions in communities that can go astray and grow rigid. There is also a tendency in each of us not to expose ourselves to criticism and to challenging questions. The sarabaites define their monastic life along their own views, and their own interpretation is their norm. They see hardly any need to listen to the experience of others or to accept spiritual direction in order to learn from the wisdom of others. "I already know what I have to do," they might say. Thus they can build a fence around themselves and lock themselves up inside. It is easier to enter into such an enclosed area than to leave it again."