'I hear that you are penetrating the hidden places of Egypt, visiting the bands of monks and going round of heaven's family on earth . . . at last the full weight of truth has burst upon me: Rufinus is in Nitria and has reached the blessed Mararius.' Thus Jerome in Antioch in 375 wrote to his friend Rufinus, and many years later Rufinus himself records this visit to Egypt with nostalgia: 'When we were drawing near this place they were aware that foreign brethren were approaching, and at once they poured out of their cells like a swarm of bees.'