A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

4. Of PONTUS, an eminent ascetic and ecclesiastical writer. The place of his birth was probably Ibora, a small town in Pontus, on the shore of the Euxine near the mouth of the Halys; but the expressions of Nicephorus Callisti would rather imply that he was of the race of the Iberians, who inhabited the modern Georgia, on the southern side of the Caucasus. Palladius, his disciple, says he was of Pontus, of the city (or rather a city) of the Iberians (πόλεῳς Ἰβήρων, or as one MS., according to Tillemont, has it, Ἰβώρων), which is ambiguous. Jerome calls him " Hyperborita," an expression which Martianay, the Benedictine editor of Jerome's works, alters to "Iberita," and which has given occasion to other conjectural emendations. (Cotelerius, Eccles. Graec. Monumenta, vol. iii. p. 543.) His father was a presbyter, or perhaps a chorepiscopus. (Heraclides, apud Tillemont.) He was placed in early life under the instruction of Gregory Nazianzen. There is extant a letter of Gregory to an Evagrius, to whom he expresses his pleasure at the growing reputation of one whom he terms " our son," and of whom he had been the instructor both in literature and religion. If, as is conjectured, this letter refers to our Evagrius, his father and he were of the same name. Gregory also in his will leaves a legacy, with strong expressions of regard, to Evagrius the deacon; but it is not certain that this is our Evagrius. Evagrius was appointed reader by the great Basil, and was ordained deacon either by Gregory Nyssen or Gregory Nazianzen. According to Socrates, he was ordained at Constantinople by Gregory Nazianzen; and Sozomen says, that when Gregory occupied the see of Constantinople, he made Evagrius his archdeacon. If these statements are received, the removal of Evagrius to Constantinople must be placed during or before the short time (A. D. 379 to 381) of Gregory's episcopate at Constantinople. But according to Palladius (whose personal connexion with Evagrius would make his testimony preferable, if the text of his Lausiac History was in a more satisfactory state), Evagrius was ordained deacon by Gregory Nyssen, and taken by him to the first council of Constantinople (the second general council), and left by him in that city, under the patronage of Nectarius, who succeeded Gregory Nazianzen. The age and intellectual character of Evagrius disposed him to polemical discussion; and " he obtained high reputation in controversy," says Palladius, " in the great city, exulting with the ardour of youth in opposing every form of heresy." His popularity was probably increased by the beauty of his person, which he set off by great attention to his dress. The handsome deacon won and returned the affection of a married lady of rank ; but Evagrius, though vain, was not profligate, and struggled hard against the sinful passion. It is doubtful, however, if he would have broken away from the snare, but for an extraordinary dream; in which he dreamed that he took a solemn oath to leave Constantinople. Deeming himself bound by his oath, he at once left the city; and by this step, according to Sozomen, preserved not only his virtue, but his life, which was in imminent danger from the jealousy of the lady's husband. His first sojourn after leaving Constantinople, was at Jerusalem. Here, recovering from the alarm into which his dream had thrown him, lie gave way again to vanity and the love of dress; but a long and severe illness, and the exhortation of Melania Romana, a lady who had devoted herself to a religious life, and had become very eminent, induced him to renounce the world, and give himself up to an ascetic life. He received the monastic garb from the hands of Melania, and departed for Egypt, the cradle of monasticism, where he spent the remainder of his life. Some copies of Palladius are thought to speak of a visit made by him to Constantinople, in A. D. 394; but the passage is obscure, and Tillemont and the Greek text of Palladius, in the Bibliotheca Patrum, refer the incident to Ammonius. Socrates states that he accompanied Gregory Nazianzen into Egypt; but there is no reason to think that Gregory visited Egypt at that time. Evagrius's removal into Egypt was probably late in A. D. 382, or in 383. The remainder of his life was spent on the hills of Nitria, in one of the hermitages or monasteries of Scetis or Scitis, or in the desert " of the Cells," to which, after a time, he withdrew. He was acquainted with several of the more eminent solitaries of the country, the two Macarii, Ammonius, and others, whose reputation for austerity of life, sanctity and miracles (especially healing the sick and casting out daemons) he emulated. He learned here, says Socrates, to be a philosopher in action, as he had before learned to be one in words. He had many disciples in the monastic life, of whom Palladius was one. His approval of the answer which one of the solitaries gave to the person who informed him of the death of his father: " Cease to blaspheme; for my Father (meaning God) is immortal," shews that Jerome's sarcastic remark, that he recommended an apathy which would shew that a man was " either a stone or God," was not undeserved. Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, would have ordained him a bishop; but he fled front him to avoid an elevation which he did not covet. Palladius has recorded many singular instances of his temptations and austerities ; and, besides a separate memoir of him, has mentioned him in his notices of several other leading monks. Evagrius died apparently about A. D. 399, at the age of fifty-four.