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E03327: Palladius of Helenopolis in his Lausiac History recounts the life of *Euagrios of Pontus (ascetic in Egypt, ob. 399, S01418), including his fights with demons. Written in Greek at Aspuna or Ankyra (both Galatia, central Asia Minor), 419/420.

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posted on 2017-07-18, 00:00 authored by erizos

Palladius of Helenopolis, Lausiac History (BHG 1435-1438v; CPG 6036), 38

Summary

The chapter of the Lausiac History on Euagrios of Pontus, Palladios’ spiritual father, is one of the longest of the book and can be described as a full vita. Euagrios is the son of a chorepiskopos from Ibora in Pontus (northern Asia Minor). He is ordained reader by Basil of Caesarea, who is called a saint (hagios), and deacon by Gregory of Nazianzus. He follows Gregory to Constantinople, and stays there under his successor, Nektarios, to fight the heresies. When a woman falls in love with him, he has a vision of angels keeping him bound, and takes an oath to become a monk. He leaves for Jerusalem where he lives with Melania the Elder, and has second thoughts about his vocation. He falls ill and eventually confesses his sin to Melania. She makes him promise that he will become a monk, prays over him, and he is healed. He leaves for Nitria and later for Kellia (both in Lower Egypt), where he follows a strict regimen of fasting, vegetarianism, and prayer, for fourteen years. He has the charisma of knowledge about demonic spirits, and publishes three books about them (Antirrhetika). Three demons appear to him in the form of three heretical priests – Arian, Eunomian, Apollinarian. He confronts demons several times. He dies having achieved immunity from carnal desires.

Text: Bartelink et al. 1974. Summary: E. Rizos.

History

Evidence ID

E03327

Saint Name

Euagrios of Pontus, ascetic in Egypt, 345-399 : S01418

Saint Name in Source

Εὐάγριος

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Euagrios_of_Pontus_ascetic_in_Egypt_ob_399/13732990

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Monastic collections (apophthegmata, etc.)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

419

Evidence not after

420

Activity not before

399

Activity not after

420

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Aspuna

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Aspuna Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Major author/Major anonymous work

Palladius of Helenopolis

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Composing and translating saint-related texts

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miracle during lifetime Exorcism

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

Born in 364 in Galatia in central Asia Minor, Palladius became a monk in 386, spending some years in Palestine, before moving to Alexandria. In c. 390, he joined the monastic community of Nitria, where he spent nine years, under Makarios of Alexandria and Evagrios of Pontus. In c. 399, he returned briefly to Palestine and then left for Constantinople where he became closely associated with John Chrysostom. By 400, he was ordained bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia (north-west Asia Minor), probably by Chrysostom. Palladius stood by his new protector throughout John’s conflict with Pope Theophilos of Alexandria over the affair of the Tall Brothers and the Council of the Oak. One year after John’s exile in 404, Palladius visited Rome in order to plead on John’s behalf with Pope Innocent I (401-411). Returning to Constantinople, he was arrested and one year later (406), he was exiled to Syene (Aswan) and Antinoe in Egypt. There he received the news of John’s death in Pontus (407) and wrote the Historical Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom (in 408 or shortly after, E02400). In the 410s, he was allowed to return to his native Galatia, and was restored as a bishop in the imperial church, being appointed to the see of Aspona. After his return from exile, in c. 419/420, Palladius published the Lausiakon (‘Book for Lausos’, widely known as the Lausiac History), a book commissioned by and dedicated to the patrician Lausos (imperial chamberlain in 420-422). Along with the History of the Monks of Egypt (E03558, composed in 395/397), Palladius’ work inaugurates the monastic genre of edifying stories and apophthegms. It immediately became a success: two decades after its publication, the ecclesiastical historian Socrates used the Lausiac History as a source (4.23.78), and it was translated into Latin and Syriac. There are also Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic translations. Its copious manuscript tradition (242 manuscripts) and unstable transmission render a definitive critical edition of the text very difficult. On the manuscript tradition of the Greek text, see: http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/6840/ Like all monastic collections, the Lausiac History was mainly written to provide exemplars of ascetic virtue and edifying stories for broader spiritual benefit, rather than to encourage the active cult of the men and women included within it – indeed some of them serve as negative examples to avoid. It was, therefore, difficult for us to decide how to treat this work in our database, focused as it is on the cult of saints. At one extreme, we could have entered every (positive) figure within it as a saint, while, at the other extreme, we might have ignored the text altogether. In the end we came to a compromise position, with one overview entry for the full text (E03176), where all the holy men and women are named, and individual entries for chapters that either reveal interesting incidental details of saintly cult or cover major figures who, in time, came to attract cult. The Lausiac History in its many manuscripts and its many translations was in fact one of the principal ways these figures came to be known, and often venerated, across the Christian world. Some of its chapters were, indeed, later detached from the collection, and circulated as independent pieces of hagiography.

Discussion

The story of Euagrios of Pontus (345-399) is one of the most extensive accounts of the Lausiac History. Euagrios, one of the most important Origenist theologians of the late fourth century, was head of the monastic community Palladius joined in Egypt. He died in the same year when Palladius left Egypt. With this chapter, Palladius composes almost a full Life of his master.

Bibliography

Text: Butler, Cuthbert. The Lausiac History of Palladius: Greek Text Edited with Introduction and Notes. Texts and Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904. Bartelink, G. J. M., Barchiesi, M. and Mohrmann, C. Palladio, La Storia Lausiaca. Scrittori Greci E Latini. Milano: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1974. (with Italian translation) English Translations: Wortley, J. Palladius, the Lausiac History, Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2015. Meyer, R. T. Palladius, the Lausiac History, Westminster MD: Newman Press: 1965. Lowtber Clarke, W. K. The Lausiac History of Palladius, London: Macmillan, 1918. Further reading: Katos, D. Palladius of Helenopolis: the Origenist Advocate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Rapp, C. ‘Palladius, Lausus and the Historia Lausiaca.’ In C. Sode, S. Takács (eds.), Novum Millennium. Studies on Byzantine History and Culture Dedicated to Paul Speck, 19 December 1999, Aldershot: Ashgate, 279-289.