ABBOT of Arsinoe, in Upper Egypt. He governed ten thousand monks,
dispersed in the deserts and monasteries near that town. These religious
men hired themselves to the farmers of the country to till their lands
and reap their corn; joining assiduous prayer and other exercises of
their state with their labor. Each man received for his wages twelve
artabes, or about forty Roman bushels or modii, says Palladius: all
which they put into the hands of their holy abbot. He gave to every one
a sufficient allowance for his subsistence during the ensuing year,
according to their abstemious manner of living. The remainder was all
distributed among the poor. By this economy, all the necessities of the
indigent in that country were supplied, and several barges loaded with
corn were sent yearly by the river to Alexandria, for the relief of the
poor of that great city. St. Serapion was honored with the priesthood,
and with admirable sanctity applied himself to the sacred functions of
the ministry: yet found time to join his brethren in their penitential
labor, not to lose his share in their charity. His name is inserted by
Canisius in his Germanic Martyrology on this day, from certain copies of
the Greek Menaea. See Palladius, c. 76, p. 760; Rufin. Vit. Patr. l. 2,
c. 18; Sozomen, l. 6, c. 28.
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