Evagrius Ponticus
Isaac the Syrian, John Damascene | |
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Major works | The Kephalia Gnostica, The Praktikos, De Oratione |
Evagrius Ponticus (
Life
There are five main sources of information on Evagrius' life. Firstly, there exists a biographical account in chapter 38 of The Lausiac History of bishop
Evagrius was born into a Christian family in the small town of
According to the biography written by Palladius, Constantinople offered many worldly attractions, and Evagrius' 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 for Jerusalem.[6]
For a short time, he stayed with
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. His extreme diet ruined his digestive tract and it is suspected he suffered from urinary tract stones.[8] 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 the Syriac Orthodox Church, which celebrates his feast on January 16, and likewise in the Armenian Apostolic Church, which celebrates his feast on February 11.
Writings
The following titles are considered authentic works attributable to Evagrius:[9][10]: lix–lxvii
- Epistula fidei. This was probably written around 379 in Constantinople and is possibly Evagrius' earliest published work.[4]: 22
- Rerum monachialum rationes is also an early work, though from the time Evagrius was in Egypt.
- Tractatus ad Eulogium (= Treatise to the Monk Eulogius / To Eulogius) is also an early work.
- The Praktikos
- The Gnostikos
- Kephalaia Gnostica(Problemata Gnostica)
- De oratione (De oratione caputula = Chapters on Prayer). This consists of a prologue and 153 chapters.
- Antirrhetikos (Counter-Arguments), which lists 487 temptations and categorizes them into the 8 evil thoughts. Only the Syriac and Armenian versions survive.[11]
- Institutio ad monachos (Exhortations to Monks)
- Sentences for Monks
- Ad virginem (Exhortation to a Virgin)
- Hypotyposis
- De diversis malignis cogitationibus
- De magistris et disciplulis
- Treatise on Various Evil Thoughts (Capita Cognoscitiva)
- Protrepticus
- Paraeneticus
- The Chapters of the Disciples of Evagrius
- 62 letters
- Various scholia also remain, including
- Scholia on the Psalms
- Scholia on Proverbs
- Scholia on Ecclesiastes
- Scholia on Job
- Scriptural commentaries
- Commentary on the Psalms
- De Seraphim (deals with the vision of Isaiah)
- De Cherubim (deals with the vision of Ezekiel)
- Commentary on the Pater Noster
- Various ascetic treatises: De Justis et Perfectis
Although ascribed to Evagrius, these two works are considered to be of doubtful authenticity.[10]: xvi–lxvii
- De Malignis Cogitationibus
- Collections of Sentences
Teachings
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2015) |
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 the
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 called praktike). 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).
Logismoi
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 are
Apatheia
In Evagrius' time, the Greek word apatheia 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
Tears
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.[15]
Later reputation and influence
Accusations of heresy
Even in his own day, Evagrius' 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 415 Jerome's Letter 133 accuses Evagrius of being a prominent Origenist, and critiques his teaching on apatheia.[4]: 19
Like the other Cappadocian fathers Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil of Caesarea, Evagrius was an avid student of
Influence
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 a Sogdian version of Evagrius' Antirrhetikos have been rediscovered as well.[16]
Many of Evagrius' more ascetic works survive in Greek, often in manuscripts of the tenth century and after from Mount Athos and other monastic centres, although often attributed to Nilus 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’ 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’ works, they have been entirely lost; only later Latin versions of two collections of proverbs (the Sentences for Monks and Sentences for a Virgin) and the treatise On the Eight Spirits survive. The Sentences were popular in
Evagrius' influence was arguably greater in its indirect forms. Within the Greek literature of Byzantine monasticism, Evagrius’ presence is obvious in both the content and the format of works by
Works
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- Modern editions
- A list of modern editions of Evagrius' writings in Greek and Syriac, as well as German translations, is contained in Julia Konstantinovsky, Evagrius Ponticus: The Making of a Gnostic, (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 186–8, and in Columba Stewart, Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus, Journal of Early Christian Studies 9:2, (2001), pp. 202–4.
- English translations
- Evagrius. The Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer. Cistercian Studies Series, vol. 4. Translated by John Eudes Bamberger OCSO. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1972.
- On Prayer, One-Hundred and Fifty-Three Texts, The Philokalia, vol 1, ed and translated by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware, (London, 1979)
- M Parmentier, 'Evagrius of Pontus and the "Letter to Melania"', Bijdragen, tijdschrift voor filosofie en theologie, 46, (Amsterdam, 1985), 2-38
- Evagrius Ponticus: Praktikos and On Prayer, trans Simon Tugwell, (Oxford: Faculty of Theology, 1987)
- 'Epistula fidei', in RJ Deferrari, Loeb 190, pp46–93
- G Gould, 'An Ancient Monastic Writing giving advice to spiritual directors (Evagrius of Pontus, On the Teachers and Disciples)', Hallel 22, (1997), pp96–103) [translation of De magistris et discipulis]
- 'Evagrius Ponticus, Antirrheticus (Selections)', translated by M O'Laughlin, in Vincent L Wimbush, ed, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman antiquity: a sourcebook, (Minneapolis, 1990), pp243–62.
- Evagrius Ponticus: Ad Monachos, translation and Commentary by Jeremy Driscoll, ACW 59. (Paulist Press, 2003) [See also Jeremy Driscoll, The “Ad monachos” of Evagrius Ponticus: Its Structure and a Select Commentary, Studia Anselmiana 104 (Rome: Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, 1991)]
- Evagrius. Evagrius Ponticus. Translated by Augustine Casiday. (New York: Routledge, 2006)
- Evagrius. Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus. Translated by Robert E. Sinkewicz, (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
- William Harmless and Raymond R. Fitzgerald, "'The Sapphire Light of the Mind': The Skemmata of Evagrius Ponticus," Theological Studies 62 (2001): 498–529.
- Martin Parmentier, "Evagrius of Pontus and the 'Letter to Melania,'" Bijdragen, tijdschrift voor filosofie en theologie 46 (1985): 2–38, reprinted in Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism, ed. Everett Ferguson (New York: Garland, 1999), 272–309.
- French translations
- Antoine Guillaumont & Claire Guillaumont, Évagre le Pontique, traité pratique ou le Moine, SC 170–171 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1971). (Praktikos in French)
- Antoine Guillaumont, Évagre Le Pontique: "Le gnostique" ou, À celui qui est devenu digne de la science, SC 356 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1989). (Gnostikos in French)
- Antoine Guillaumont, Les six centuries des "Kephalaia Gnostica": édition critique de la version syriaque commune et édition d'une nouvelle version syriaque, PO 28, fasc. 1 (Paris: Firmin–Didot, 1958). (Kephalaia Gnostica in French)
- Paul Géhin, Claire Guillaumont, and Antoine Guillaumont, eds., Évagre le Pontique: sur les pensées, SC 438 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1998). (Peri logismōn in French)
- Paul Géhin, Évagre le Pontique: scholies aux Proverbes, SC 340 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1987).
- Paul Géhin, Évagre le Pontique: scholies à l'Ecclésiaste, SC 397 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993).
References
- ^ Manoogian, Torkom (1969). Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church. New York: Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. p. 33a.
- ^ Mani Rajan, Corepiscopo (2017). "Martyrs, Saints, and Prelates of the Syriac Orthodox Church".
The feast of St. Evagris (surnamed Ponticus) is celebrated in the Syrian Orthodox Church on 16 January.
- ^ "Evagrius". ldysinger.com.
- ^ ISBN 9780754662655.
- ISBN 9780814660126.
- ^ Sinkewicz, Robert E., ed. (2003). Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. p. xvii.
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 978-1608990665.
- ^ "Writings of Evagrius Ponticus". Guide to Evagrius Ponticus. Retrieved 2018-02-14.
- ^ a b Bamberger, John Eudes, ed. (1972). Evagrius: The Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer. Cistercian Studies Series, vol. 4. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications.
- ISBN 0-19-516222-6.
- ^ "Peri Logismon – on Thoughts". ldysinger.com.
- ^ S2CID 170609824.
- ^ Sinkewicz 2003, pp. 97–98
- ^ Ford, Marcia (2006). Traditions of the Ancients. Broadman & Holman. p. 8.
- ^ Sims-Williams, Nicholas (1998). "Evagrius Ponticus". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IX, Fasc. 1. pp. 78–79.
Further reading
- Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian. Translated by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1887.
- Cassian, John. The Conferences of John Cassian. A Select Library of the Christian Church: Nicene and Pre-Nicene Fathers (Second Series), vol. XI: Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian. Translated by Edgar C. S. Gibson. New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1894.
- Guillaumont, Antoine. Les 'Kephalaia Gnostica' d'Évagre le Pontique et l'histoire de l'origénisme chez les Grecs et chez les Syriens, Paris: Seuil, (Patristica Sorbonensia 5) 1962
- Guillaumont, Antoine. Un philosophe au désert, Évagre le Pontique, Paris: Vrin, 2004.
- Palladius of Galatia (1907). . The paradise, or garden of the holy fathers. Translated by Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge. Chatto & Windus.
- Palmer, G. E. H., Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, ed./trans. The Philokalia: The Complete Text. 5 vols. Compiled by St. Nikodimos and St. Makarios. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.
- Tsakiridis, George. Evagrius Ponticus and Cognitive Science: A Look at Moral Evil and the Thoughts. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010.
- Ward, Benedicta, trans. The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
- Angela Tilby, "The Seven Deadly Sins: Their Origin in the Spiritual Teaching of Evagrius the Hermit" London: SPCK Publishing, 2009.
External links
- Guide to Evagrius Ponticus edited by Joel Kalvesmaki; includes exhaustive list of writings, extensive bibliography, checklist of images, and sourcebook of testimonia
- St. Evagrius Ponticus – a collection of many Evagrian works in a Greek/English parallel format, edited by Luke Dysinger
- Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes
- That Man of Understanding: A Material Introduction to Evagrius of Pontus