We Religious Brothers … there are eleven of us … have spent most of our lives as contemplatives, praying and studying Holy Scripture and the texts of the Church Fathers. And except for one of us, we also provide minor services to more important scholars of antiquity, men and women who have added greatly to our understanding of the Church and Theological history. We ourselves have not made any great discoveries or indexed prodigious amounts of commentary. One of our Brothers compares us to office boys in the halls of universities.
As I said, that’s all true except for one, Terd, who is a well known scholar on the writings of Athanasius of Alexandria, an early Church doctor. Brother Theresa … that’s Terd’s professed name … has been open about why he came here a few years ago. He disliked living in what he called “academic communes” and sought some anonymity by asking to join our order … he’d been a Capuchin monk … and re-locating to its farthest outpost in West Saugerties.
I don’t know how our former Abbot, Sparky, got this computer. He may have planned to market our services to a wider set of customers throughout the world. That makes me laugh. Sparky would not have had much luck finding any additional work and none of us wants any. We’re pretty laid back. I’ve had the same project now for 4 years that I originally estimated would take me a month!
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