Longinus, a friend and disciple of Lucius and later a famous abbot of the monastery of Enaton, led the monks in opposition to the Council of Chalcedon. Enaton was a leading monastery in Egypt; the Monophysite patriarchs took up residence there in the sixth century; it was sacked by the Persians in 611.
One day Abba Longinus questioned Abba Lucius about three thoughts, saying first, “I want to go into exile.” The old man said to him, “If you cannot control your tongue, you will not be an exile anywhere. Therefore control your tongue here, and you will be an exile.” Next he said to him, “I wish to fast.” The old man replied, “Isaiah said, ‘If you bend your neck like a rope or a bulrush that is not the fast I will accept; but rather, control your evil thoughts.’” (Isaiah 58.) He said to him the third time, “I wish to flee from men.” The old man replied, “If you have not first of all lived rightly with men, you will not be able to live rightly in solitude.”
Translated from Greek by Benedicta Ward