Monasticism at a very early date spread eastwards. The solitaries had a special predilection for Scriptural sites. At every place hallowed by tradition, which Syria visited (A.D.385), she found monks. The attraction of Mount Sinai for the solitaries was irresistible, in spite of the danger of captivity or death at the hands of the Saracens. In 373 a number of solitaries inhabited this mountain, living on dates and other fruit, such bread as they had being reserved for the Sacred Mysteries. All the week they lived apart in their cells; they gathered together in the church on Saturday evening and, after spending the night in prayer, received communion on Sunday morning. Forty of them were massacred in 373, and on the same day another group of solitaries at Raithe (supposed to be Elim) were killed by a second band of barbarians. These events were described by eyewitnesses (Tillemont, H.E., VII, 573-80). The same kind of life was being led at Mount Sinai, and a similar experience was undergone some twenty years later when St. Nilus was there.