When St Savvas saw that a monk had thoroughly mastered the rules of monastic conduct, and was already able to keep watch over his intellect and fight off demonic thoughts - had indeed banished from his mind all memory of worldly things - then, if this monk was physically weak and ill, St Savvas allowed him to have a cell in the Lavra. But if such a monk was vigorous and in good health, he told him to build his own cell.
Do you see how the divine Savvas, too, required his disciples to keep watch over the intellect and only then
permitted them to dwell by themselves in their own cells? What are we doing who idly sit in our cells without even knowing whether there is such an art as keeping watch over the intellect?
Philokalia
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