Desert Fathers and the beginnings of Christian monasticism
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↑The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics who sought to withdraw from society to live a life devoted to prayer, contemplation, and spiritual discipline. Emerging in the 3rd century CE, primarily in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, these individuals laid the foundations for Christian monasticism. Their pursuit of a deeper spiritual connection through solitude and meditation mirrors practices found in Buddhist monastic traditions, which also emphasize inner transformation through disciplined contemplation.
4th-century Desert Father from Ethiopia Saint Onuphrius, lived in seclusion in the desert of Upper Egypt, icon from Source: Wikimedia Commonsꜛ (license: public domain)
Who were the Desert Fathers?
The Desert Fathers were a loosely connected group of Christian ascetics who retreated to the deserts during the early centuries of Christianity. Their movement began with figures like Antony the Great (c. – CE), who is often considered the father of Christian monasticism. These early monks sought to emulate the life of Christ by renouncing worldly pos
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The first question anyone will ask you when you are studying such an obscure person as Evagrius Pontus is "Who is that?"
The second question will be "Why on earth is he important?"
So to begin with, I suppose we should talk a little bit about Evagrius' life, and then we can speak more to his importance and general thought after that.
Evagrius was born in c.e., the son of the chorbishop of Ibora in Pontus (that is, modern day Iverönü, Turkey).[1] He fell under the influence of St. Basil (“the Great”), who had retired to live the ascetic life nearby at his family estate in Annesi, and who eventually ordained Evagrius to be a lector at the church in that area.[2] Though his biography is, at this point, incomplete, the next clear date in his life is the year he was ordained a deacon by the bishop of Sasima, Gregory Nazianzen, in [3] Gregory subsequently brought Evagrius with him to Alexandria as his archdeacon, inviting him to help reestablish the orthodox faith as he (Gregory) presided over the Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in [4]
Though Gregory’s role in the council was a complete disaster (he could not maintain peace betwe
Evagrius Ponticus
Evagrius Ponticus (c. ) was an Egyptian monastic, and one of the earliest spiritual writers on asceticism in the Christian eremitic tradition. He is also called Evagrius of Pontus or Evagrius the Solitary. Although condemned in proceedings associated with the Fifth Ecumenical Council his writings, many passed under pseudonyms, exercised a very strong influence over Orthodox spirituality.
Life
Evagrius was born in Pontus around the year and studied under the Cappadocian Fathers. St. Basil the Great tonsured Evagrius a reader, and St. Gregory the Theologian elevated him to diaconate. As a deacon, Evagrius Ponticus would attend the Second Ecumenical Council (First Constantinople) in , which formulated the last portion of the Nicene Creed (the article dealing with the Holy Spirit). After visiting Jerusalem, where Evagrius became a monk, he went to the Egyptian desert in There his life would touch those of other saints such as St. Macarius of Alexandria, his mentor; and St. John Cassian ("Cassian the Roman"), his disciple. Many believe he also knew St. Macarius the Great. He died in Kellia, Egypt, in
Evagrius passed on his firsthand knowledge of the Dese
Preview
Condemned in the mid-sixth century, the late fourth-century Christian writer Evagrius of Pontus presents a puzzle to historians of late antiquity. Working without the benefit of the robust apparatus of scholarship that develops around ancient authors deemed orthodox, scholars often engage in the most fundamental of historiographical tasks: what texts are his? what are the facts of his biography? what were his aims? Answering these questions requires advanced skills, for Evagrius’s corpus, composed in Greek, does not fully survive in that language; some of the most important works survive only in Syriac; until the twentieth century, editions of Evagrian texts were mostly lacking; and some of those still in use are less than optimal.1 In this environment, radical reconsideration of Evagrius’s life is possible in a way it is not for other, more well-attended figures from the past. Casiday’s book, the outgrowth of articles written over the past twelve years, suggests a significant revision to current scholarship on Evagrius.
The book’s subtitle, “Beyond Heresy,” indicates the context for Casiday’s revision. In previous articles, Casiday divided Evagrian scholarship into
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