Page "Mesrop Mashtots" Paragraph 3

Leaving the court for the service of God, he took holy orders, and withdrew to a monastery with a few chosen companions.

There, says Koryun, he practiced great austerities, enduring hunger and thirst, cold and poverty.

He lived on vegetables, wore a hair shirt, slept upon the ground, and often spent whole nights in prayer and the study of the Holy Scriptures.

This life he continued for a few years.