EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS

EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS, monk, ascetic (346–399). Evagrius was a friend and protege of Gregory of Nazianzus (q.v.) and was ordained deacon by the latter. Following a midlife crisis, he embraced the monastic life in place of a brilliant career as a secular churchman, and ended his days at the retreat of Nitria in Egypt, spending some time with Macarius (qq.v.). He was the most intellectually cultured and sophisticated of the Desert Fathers, and deeply shaped by both the Cappadocians and the master whom he shared with them, Origen (qq.v.). His writings, couched mostly in the form of aphorisms, though including a significant body of correspondence, contributed enormously to the development of Orthodox asceticism (q.v.) and, in particular, to the “art of prayer.”

Due to the impress of certain of Origen’s speculations, he remained a controversial figure for a century and a half after his death and was ultimately condemned posthumously at the Fifth Ecumenical Council (q.v.) for Origenism. His works survive partially in Greek, and then chiefly under different names. They were nearly all translated into Latin and Syriac, where, modified somewhat in the translation, they continued to be greatly esteemed. His Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer are important works available in English.