In this monastery...

…there was another maiden who feigned madness and demon-possession. The others felt such contempt for her that they never ate with her, which pleased her entirely. Taking herself to the kitchen, she used to perform menial service and she was, as the saying goes, the sponge of the monastery, really fulfilling the Scriptures, “If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.” She wore a rag around her head. All the others had their hair closely cropped and wore cowls. In this way she used to serve. Not one of the four hundred ever saw her chewing all the years of her life. She never sat down at table or partook of a particle of bread, but she wiped up with a sponge the crumbs from the tables and was satisfied with scouring pots. She was never angry at anyone, nor did she grumble or talk, either little or much, although she was maltreated, insulted, cursed, and loathed. 

Now an angel appeared to St. Piteroum, the famous anchorite dwelling at Porphyrities, and said to him, “Why do you think so much of yourself for being pious and residing in a place such as this? Do you want to see someone more pious than yourself, a woman? Go to the women’s monastery at Tabennisi and there you will find one with a rag on her head. She is more advanced than you. While being cuffed about by such a crowd, she has never taken her heart off God. But you dwell here and wander about cities in your mind.” 

And he who had never gone away left that monastery and asked the prefects to allow him to enter into the monastery of women. They admitted him, since he was well on in years and, moreover, had a great reputation. So he went in and insisted upon seeing all of them. She did not appear. Finally he said to them, “Bring them all to me, for she is missing.” They told him, “You have seen them all, except for one we have in the kitchen who is mad.” He told them, “Bring her to me. Let me see her.” 

They went to call her, but she did not answer, either because she knew of the incident or because it was revealed to her. They seized her forcibly and told her, “The holy Piteroum wishes to see you,” for he was renowned. When she came, he saw the rag on her head and, falling down at her feet, he said, “Bless me!” In a similar manner, she too fell down at his feet and said, “Bless me, lord.” All the women were amazed at this and said, “Father, take no insults. She is mad.” Piteroum then addressed the women, “You are the ones who are mad! This woman is a spiritual mother (amma) to both you and me, and I pray that I may be deemed as worthy as she on the Day of Judgment.” 

Hearing this, they fell at his feet, confessing various things - one how she had poured the leavings of her plate over her head; another had beaten her with her fists; another had blistered her nose. So they confessed various and sundry outrages. After praying for them, he left. And after a few days she was unable to bear the praise and honor of the sisters, and all their apologizing was so burdensome to her that she left the monastery. Where she went and where she disappeared to, and how she died, nobody knows. 

Palladius, Historia Lausiaca 36 
early 5th century