Evagrius Ponticus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| The Solitary | |
| Born | 345 Ibora (modern-day İverönü,Erbaa,Tokat,Turkey) |
| Died | 399 Scetis (modern-dayEgypt) |
| Venerated in | Syriac Orthodox Church Armenian Church[1] |
| Feast | January 16 (Syrian)[2] February 11 (Armenian)[3] |
| Influences | Origen,Didymus the Blind,Anthony the Great,Macarius of Egypt,Basil the Great,Gregory Nazianzen,Melania the Elder |
| Influenced | Palladius of Galatia,Babai the Great,John Cassian,Isidore of Pelusium,The Tall Brothers (Ammonius, Dioscorus, Eusebius, and Euthymius),Melania the Younger,Rufinus of Aquileia,John of Apamea,Isaac the Syrian,John Damascene |
| Major works | The Kephalia Gnostica, The Praktikos, De Oratione |
Evagrius Ponticus (Ancient Greek:Εὐάγριος ὁ Ποντικός), also calledEvagrius the Solitary (345–399 AD), was aChristian monk andascetic fromHeraclea, a city on the coast ofBithynia inAsia Minor. One of the most influentialtheologians in the late fourth-century church, he was well known as a thinker, polished speaker, and gifted writer. He left a promising ecclesiastical career inConstantinople and traveled toJerusalem, where in 383 AD he became a monk at the monastery ofRufinus andMelania the Elder. He then went to Egypt and spent the remaining years of his life inNitria andKellia, marked by years of asceticism and writing. He was a disciple of several influential contemporary church leaders, includingBasil of Caesarea,Gregory of Nazianzus, andMacarius of Egypt. He was a teacher of others, includingJohn Cassian andPalladius of Galatia.
There are five main sources of information on Evagrius's life. Firstly, there exists a biographical account in chapter 38 ofThe Lausiac History of bishopPalladius of Helenopolis (c. 420); Palladius was a friend and disciple of Evagrius, and spent about nine years sharing Evagrius's life in the desert. Secondly, there is a chapter on Evagrius in the anonymousEnquiry about the monks of Egypt, which predates Palladius, and is a first-hand account of a voyage taken by seven monks fromPalestine in the winter of 394–5 to the principal monastic sites in Egypt. The final three sources are briefer and with more distinct biases: Evagrius features in some of theApophthegmata literature, as well as in the church histories ofSocrates andSozomen.[4]: 11f
Evagrius was born into a Christian family in the small town ofIbora, modern-dayİverönü, Erbaa[5] in the late Roman province ofHelenopontus. He was educated inNeocaesarea, where he was ordained as alector underBasil the Great. Around 380 he joinedGregory of Nazianzus inConstantinople, where Gregory had been installed as bishop, and was promoted todeacon. He stayed on in Constantinople after Gregory left in July 381, and eventually became anarchdeacon. When EmperorTheodosius I convened theSecond Ecumenical Council in 381, Evagrius was present, despite Gregory's premature departure.[citation needed]
According to the biography written by Palladius, Constantinople offered many worldly attractions, and Evagrius's vanity was aroused by the high praise of his peers. Eventually, he became infatuated with a married woman. Amid this temptation, he is said to have had a vision in which he was imprisoned by the soldiers of the governor at the request of the woman's husband. This vision, and the warning of an attendant angel, made him flee from the capital and head forJerusalem.[6]
For a short time, he stayed withMelania the Elder andRufinus of Aquileia in a monastery near Jerusalem, but even there he could not forsake his vainglory and pride. He apparently took special care of his dress, and spent much of his time sauntering through the streets of the cosmopolitan Holy City.[7]: 264 He fell gravely ill and only after he confessed his troubles to Melania, and accepted her instruction to become a monk was he restored to health.[7]: 264 After being made a monk at Jerusalem in 383, he joined acenobitic community of monks in Nitria inLower Egypt in around 385,[7]: 264 but after some years moved toKellia. There he spent the last fourteen years of his life pursuing studies underMacarius of Alexandria andMacarius the Great (who had been a disciple ofAnthony the Great, and lived at the monastic colony ofScetis, about 25 miles away).[7]: 264
Evagrius lived an ascetic life. He ate only once a day and did not consume fruit, meat or vegetables or any cooked food.[8] He also refrained from bathing. Evagrius did not sleep more than a few hours each night and devoted much time to contemplation and prayer.[8]
Evagrius is venerated as a Saint in theSyriac Orthodox Church, which celebrates his feast on January 16, and likewise in theArmenian Apostolic Church, which celebrates his feast on February 11.[citation needed]
The following titles are considered authentic works attributable to Evagrius:[9][10]: lix–lxvii
Although ascribed to Evagrius, these two works are considered to be of doubtful authenticity.[10]: xvi–lxvii
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Most Egyptian monks of that time were illiterate. Evagrius, a highly educated classical scholar, is believed to be one of the first people to begin recording and systematizing the erstwhile oral teachings of the monastic authorities known as theDesert Fathers. Eventually, he also became regarded as a Desert Father, and several of hisapothegms appear in theVitae Patrum (a collection of sayings from early Christian monks).
Evagrius rigorously tried to avoid teaching beyond the spiritual maturity of his audiences. When addressing novices, he carefully stuck to concrete, practical issues (which he calledpraktike). For example, in Peri Logismon 16, he includes this disclaimer:
I cannot write about all the villainies of the demons; and I feel ashamed to speak about them at length and in detail, for fear of harming the more simple-minded among my readers.[12]
His more advanced students enjoyed more theoretical, contemplative material (gnostike).
The most prominent feature of his research was a system of categorizing various forms of temptation. He developed a comprehensive list in AD 375 of eight evil thoughts (λογισμοὶ), or eight terrible temptations, from which all sinful behavior springs. This list was intended to serve a diagnostic purpose: to help readers identify the process of temptation, their own strengths and weaknesses, and the remedies available for overcoming temptation.
Evagrius stated that "The first thought of all is that of love of self; after this, the eight."[13]: 511
The eight patterns of evil thought aregluttony,lust,greed, sadness,acedia [despondency],anger,vainglory, andpride.[14] The Greek and Syriac terms for Evagrius' canonical eightlogismoi are:[15]
| English | Greek | Syriac |
|---|---|---|
| gluttony | gastrimargia | la‘buthā |
| sexuallust | porneia | zāniuthā |
| love of money | philargyria | rehmat kespā |
| sadness | lypē | ‘aqthā |
| anger | orgē | rugzā / rigzā |
| akēdia | akēdia | ma’inuthā |
| vainglory | kenodoxia | šubḥā sriqā |
| pride | hyperēphania | rmúthā |
Some two centuries later in 590 AD,Pope Gregory I, "Pope Gregory The Great" would revise this list to form the more commonly knownSeven Deadly Sins, where Pope Gregory the Great combined acedia (despondency) with tristitia (sorrow), calling the combination the sin ofsloth; vainglory with pride; and added envy to the list of "Seven Deadly Sins".
In Evagrius's time, the Greek wordapatheia was used to refer to a state of being without passion. Evagrius wrote: "A man in chains cannot run. Nor can the mind that is enslaved to passion see the place of spiritual prayer. It is dragged along and tossed by these passion-filled thoughts and cannot stand firm and tranquil."[13]: 516
Evagrius taught that tears were the utmost sign of true repentance and that weeping, even for days at a time, opened one up to God.[16]
Even in his own day, Evagrius's views had been criticised. A controversy over how to conceptualise God that broke out in the Nitrian desert in 400 saw dispute in which one side was influenced by Origenist views. Although Evagrius was not mentioned in this dispute, in 415Jerome'sLetter 133 accuses Evagrius of being a prominent Origenist, and critiques his teaching onapatheia.[4]: 19
Like the other Cappadocian fathers Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil of Caesarea, Evagrius was an avid student ofOrigen of Alexandria (c. 185-250 AD), and he further developed certain esoteric speculations regarding the pre-existence of human souls, the Origenist account ofapocatastasis, and certain teachings about the natures of God and Christ.[4]: 20
The accusations of heresy meant that many of his more speculative writings were lost in the original Greek. Since, however, by the sixth century, many of his writings had been translated into Syriac and Armenian—the traditions unaffected by the decisions of the 553 Council—these works survived in these translations (and some of these sixth-century Syriac manuscripts survive today). In addition, substantial fragments of aSogdian version of Evagrius'sAntirrhetikos have been rediscovered as well.[17]
Many of Evagrius's more ascetic works survive in Greek, often in manuscripts of the tenth century and after fromMount Athos and other monastic centres, although often attributed toNilus of Ancyra, or occasionally to Basil or Gregory of Nazianzus.[4]: 22 His exegetical scholia were incorporated into anthologies, sometimes with correct attribution, sometimes not (those on the Psalms were typically attributed to Origen).[7]: 271 Only in the twentieth century was this set of ascetic works properly attributed to Evagrius.
In the Latin world, Evagrius’s friend Rufinus is known to have translated several of the works into Latin in the early fifth century, and others were translated decades later by Gennadius of Marseilles. Although these were the very first translations of Evagrius’s works, they have been entirely lost; only later Latin versions of two collections of proverbs (theSentences for Monks andSentences for a Virgin) and the treatiseOn the Eight Spirits survive. TheSentences were popular inBenedictine circles, ironically often attributed to “Evagrius the bishop.” The latter text was always attributed toNilus.[7]: 271f
Evagrius's influence was arguably greater in its indirect forms. Within the Greek literature of Byzantine monasticism, Evagrius’s presence is obvious in both the content and the format of works byDiadochus of Photike,Maximus the Confessor,John of Damascus,Symeon the New Theologian, andGregory Palamas. The fullest flowering of Evagrius’s influence in the Syriac world was in the spiritual writings ofIsaac of Nineveh, who relies heavily on Evagrius’s teaching on both the passions and prayer.[7]: 272 In the Latin world, Evagrius's influence came in the way thatJohn Cassian, one of his most faithful disciples, preserved and propagated the basic elements of Evagrius's teaching on the stages of the monastic life, tripartite anthropology, and the eight thoughts (although Cassian never mentions Evagrius by name, since his reputation was already tainted). Through Cassian, Evagrius's thought passed to Gregory the Great, and the Evagrian schema of eight generic thoughts afflicting the monks of Egypt was transformed into a list now famous as the Seven Deadly Sins.[7]: 272
 | This article mayrequirecleanup to meet Wikipedia'squality standards. The specific problem is:style. Please helpimprove this article if you can.(December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The feast of St. Evagris (surnamed Ponticus) is celebrated in the Syrian Orthodox Church on 16 January.
| The sins | |
|---|---|
| Describing the sins | |
| In art and culture |
|
| Related | |
