Monks Like Children

Sunt praeterea quaedam in ipso Aegyptiorum habitu non tantum ad curam corporis, quantum ad morum formula congruentia, quo simplicitatis et innocentiae observantia, etiam in ipsa vestitus qualitate teneatur. Cucullis namque perparvis usque ad cervicis humerorumque demissis confinia, quibus tantem capita contegant, indesinenter diebus utuntur ac noctibus, scilicet ut innocentiam et simplicitatem parvulorum jugiter custodire etiam imitatione ipsius velaminis commoveantur. Qui reversi ad infantiam Christi cunctis horis cum affectu ac virtute decantant: Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum, neque elati sunt oculi mei, neque ambulavi in magnis, neque in mirabilibus super me. Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed exaltavi animam meam: sicut ablactatus est super matre sua.   Sanctus Ioannes Cassianus, De Coenobiorum Institutis

Besides there is a part of the clothing of the Egyptian monks which concerns not only the care of the body but more so the regulation of behavior, that they might hold to the observance of simplicity and innocence by the very type of this clothing. For they constantly wear, day and night, very small hoods coming down to the end of the neck and shoulders, covering only the head, that by imitating the same dress of little children they may constantly be moved to guard the same simplicity and innocence. These men who have returned to infancy in Christ, sing at all hours with heart and strength: 'Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up, nor have I walked in greatness, nor in wonders above me. If I did not feel myself humble, but raised up my soul, like a child weaned over his own mother.'1 Saint John Cassian, Institutes of the Coenobia 1 Ps 130. 1-2