Evagrius of Pontus

Evagrius was a learned monk from Pontus who left Constantinople for the Egyptian desert about 383 and became a disciple of the Macarii. He wrote short chapters and treatises on the monastic life and on prayer, which were copied under other names after his Origenism was condemned in 553.

Dates

ca. 345-399 (approximate)

See or city

Kellia

Region

Egypt

Also known as

Evagrius Ponticus; Evagrius the Solitary; Evagrius Scholasticus (not the church historian)

Notes

Born in Pontus, deacon in Constantinople under Gregory of Nazianzus, he withdrew to Egypt about 383 and lived as a monk at Nitria and Kellia. His writings on the eight evil thoughts and on prayer shaped later monastic spirituality; his Origenist speculation was condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople (553), long after his death. Several of his works survive only under other names, notably Nilus.

Works

• Practical Chapters to Anatolius (the Praktikos, with its prologue on the monastic habit)Capita practica ad Anatolium · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2430 (not yet checked)
• Practical Discourse (chapters as printed in Migne)Λόγος πρακτικός (Practicus) · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2430 (not yet checked)
• Sayings of holy monksDicta sanctorum monachorum · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2430 (not yet checked)
• The causes of monastic matters, and the setting of them in quietRerum monachalium rationes · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2442 (not yet checked)
• Thirty-four chapters in sequenceCapita xxxiv per ordinem · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2430 (not yet checked)
• On the Eight Thoughts, to AnatoliusDe octo vitiosis cogitationibus · ca. 380-399 · CPG 2451 (not yet checked)