They said of Abba Serinus that he worked very hard and always ate two paxamadia. Abba Job, his companion and himself a great ascetic, came to him and said, “In my cell I keep my rule, but when I go out I condescend to the brothers.” Abba Serinus said to him, “It is not a great virtue to keep your rule when you are in your cell; the greater thing is to keep it when you have gone out of your cell.”
Abba Serinus said, “I spent my time reaping, sewing, and plaiting. In all these things, if the hand of God had not fed me, I could not have been sustained.”