From the Prologue of Ochrid
Nilus was at first a prefect in the capital, Constantinople. As a married man he had one son and one daughter. Seeing the corrupt life of the capital, he agreed with his wife that they should withdraw from the world. And so they did. His wife with their daughter went to a women's monastery in Egypt, while Nilus with his son Theodulus went to Mount Sinai. For a full sixty years Saint Nilus struggled ascetically on Sinai. He wrote beautiful books on the spiritual life. He reposed peacefully around the year 450, in the eightieth year of his earthly life, and passed into the blessed heavenly life. His holy word is this: "Bodily passions derive their origin from bodily needs, and against them abstinence is necessary; while passions of the soul are born from the needs of the soul, and against them prayer is necessary."
