Cure of the Distressed Soul: the Consolation of Evagrius of Pontus on the Death of Gregory Nazianzus
Translation of Letter 57 by Evagrius of Pontus1
1. Since you are mortal, you should not be very disheartened concerning the falling asleep of our revered father. "For we are proceeding to meet him, but he is not returning to us."2 My desire, then, concerning all I have is this: I pledged a vow before God3 when I entered the rank of monks4 that after the death of my father5 nothing on the earth would be left for me, but I would spend it all as alms for the Lord.
2. According to your word, then, you wrote to us in the time when sadness was burning you. But I, though also in lamentation, was called upon for this letter, and I was compelled to write these things that I received from you. God, who comforts the downtrodden,6 also comforts us, by his suddenly7 granting us knowledge . . .
(a) . . . of both death and life;
(b) . . . of the body—which is our vessel8—and of the rational soul;
(c) . . . of why souls are bound by bodies and yet [the body] is perishable;
(d) . . . of what reason angels and demons come to our realm;
We, certainly, don't go to their realms, for neither are we able to bind further the angels to God, nor do we intend the spirits to be more foul.9 For neither do we attain to such great knowledge, nor are we left to such ignorance.
3. (e) . . . also of how our fathers are our fathers only with regard to the body, but God is the Father of the soul.
In the same way the sickness of the son disheartens the father, so also the disorder of the soul disheartens God. A father, at the sickness of his son, summons a physician. But from heaven God sends for the physician of our souls so that he might entice and draw men from wickedness to virtue and from ignorance to the knowledge of God.
4. (f) . . . also of how he granted to the angels a habitation—the Upper Jerusalem (just as it is written, "You approached Mount Sion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and the multitude of angels."10)—whereas he bound the demons in chains of darkness and committed them to the lowest parts of the earth so that they might be kept for the Judgment.11
But he placed us in this realm and joined us with laboring bodies, as it is written, "The heaven of heavens are the Lord's, but the earth he gave to men,"12 so that, when we enact mercies, mercies might come to us,13 and that we might become co-inheritors with the angels,14 with whom, I believe, is our revered father, for he was merciful. Those who received mercies from him and sold him oil15 are witnesses.
5. These words of beginning knowledge emerged as lamentation touched me, and they transformed my distress.
But you, O holy one, did well. You refreshed the blessed one in his life and, as he slept, you reverenced him within his holy grave, where our father Abraham and his sons sleep. And I shall confess [your deeds] before my Lord and before the holy angels,16 who will lead you and set you before the judgment seat of Christ our Savior.17
Cure of the Soul
Gazing through Evagrius's comments on the spiritual life we see a master who sought to transmit his experiences to other people pursuing the vision of God, to present to his readers much more than ideas about the spiritual life. Just as he saw Scripture as apotropaic when recited by a Christian, so Evagrius intended his writings, when written or read, to be curative of spiritual disease. Whatever theoretical power there is in his writings is there because he sought to elevate the theoria of his readers. To illustrate this endeavor, I have made the preceding translation of Evagrius's Letter 57 the cornerstone of this paper, and my comments here are meant to place the letter in its literary and historical context; to highlight those aspects of the letter that best illustrate his technique of care of others' souls; and more specifically to point out how Evagrius co-struggled with others who suffered the loss of their teacher, Gregory Nazianzus.
Evagrius's letters are the workshop for his other treatises. This should be apparent simply from those compositions that still retain their prefatory letter, written to accompany various "chapters" on prayer or on fighting demons. These letters claim to be the response to other peoples' requests for insight and for advice on aspects of the spiritual life.18 In his other letters we often find sayings that appear in his other treatises, suggesting that Evagrius used the experience of letter writing to produce new thoughts on the spiritual life, thoughts that he copied down and incorporated into other works.19 It is surprising that, given their original function, the letters have not received attention comparable to that given to his scholia and sentences. The exceptions are his two longest letters, of which one is probably his earliest, and the other, his latest. He wrote Letter 63, once ascribed to St. Basil,20 around 380 from Constantinople to present a defense to Christians from his homeland, Pontus, for his flight from there, and to present an exposition of Trinitarian doctrine. When writing, Evagrius was with Gregory,21 who undoubtedly both exercised a strong influence on, and trusted, Evagrius. This is seen in that Gregory left him to be his representative at the proceedings of the Council at Constantinople (381). Hence this letter is famous for showing the relationship between the theology of Evagrius and that of Gregory Nazianzus. On the other hand, Evagrius wrote Letter 64, indicated by one manuscript to have been directed to Melania,22 toward the end of his life.23 In this letter, his longest extant, Evagrius presents an exposition on the relationship between letter writing and God's revelation, as well as a vision of the relationship (both current and eventual) between humanity and the Trinity. Because of its extensive treatment of the Son of God, this letter is taken as a classical exposition of Evagrius's Origenistic Christology. These two letters, aside from a few prefatory letters, are the only ones that have thus far been translated into English, and are therefore the ones most often used to develop a portrait of the monk as a theoretician of the spiritual life.
Evagrius's affection for his teacher Gregory Nazianzus endured throughout his life, evident in that he continued to cite him as one of the spiritual masters.24 Gabriel Bunge, in his well-annotated German translation of the letters, suggests that Gregory and Evagrius maintained a healthy correspondence, evident in several of Evagrius's extant letters.25 In them, he continually asserts the mastery Gregory had over him with regard to the spiritual life, addressing him "O wondrous one!" [qauma/sie]. Evagrius's letters to Gregory imply that Gregory also wrote regularly, although no letters from the bishop are extant.
A decade of correspondence ended, however, with Gregory's death, around 390.26 In death, Gregory returned Evagrius's admiration. In his will he left him part of his estate:
To Evagrius the Deacon, who in many things toiled along, and thought out, many things with me, and who furnished prudence in an abundance of things, I confess thanks, both before God and before people. God will compensate him in greater things. But so that the smallest tokens of my friendship should not fall short, I desire that he be given one shirt, one tunic, two cloaks, and thirty gold pieces.27
Not long after Gregory's death, news reached Evagrius, evident from the corpus of Evagrius's letters. Bunge suggests that he wrote Letter 21, written to a fellow monk Eustathius, on the occasion of the death of Gregory, "our common father." This Eustathius was included in Gregory's will as one of two monks who lived in his household and who were to receive an inheritance of property and flocks in Arianzus, in Cappadocia.28 He was also one of the three executors of the will.29 Letter 21 is a brief letter of comfort, as much for Evagrius as for Eustathius. He admonishes himself to garner some comfort:
We two—I and you, my beloved brother Eustathius—need comfort since we have been left by our common father. And I have no less need than you of comfort, even if I now try to comfort you. For you know how the blessed one loved me, since your sacred presence mediated, bore fruit, and increased for us.
And for Eustathius Evagrius provides comfort by reminding him that his bishop Onesimus is there for him.
In a fashion similar to Bunge's, I would like to suggest that Letter 57, which opened this paper, was written as well to a fellow disciple of Gregory Nazianzus concerning his death.30 While Bunge suggests that Letter 57 might also have been directed to Eustathius, this seems unlikely to me, mainly since this letter and 21, when put side by side, render elements in each redundant. It would be unusual for Evagrius to send to the same person two consolatory letters that start with duplicated introductory comments and that seem to conflict in so many details. In Letter 21, Evagrius points to Onesimus as a comfort; in Letter 57, to Evagrius's own letter. The former mentions nothing of the inheritance left in the will; the latter makes this a chief point of business. The former addresses Eustathius as "brother" and "beloved"; the latter has no such address.31 Furthermore, if the letters were both to Eustathius, it would seem strange that Letter 21 makes no mention of the inheritance, even though it was written after the death of Gregory. After all, the impetus for Eustathius's writing to Evagrius in the first place probably would have been its disbursement.
A more plausible scenario is this. Eustathius and one of the deacons of Gregory's household (possibly the Gregory or Marcellus mentioned in the will) wrote to Evagrius two or more letters about the death and the inheritance, seeking to remunerate Evagrius and to solicit words of comfort. Evagrius sent Letters 57 and 21 at the same time, the former to deacon Gregory or Marcellus (whoever might have written on behalf of the estate), the latter to Eustathius. Under this scenario, Letter 57, addressed to someone Evagrius did not know beyond his role as caretaker of Gregory's body, is the one meant for wide reading in circles at Cappadocia, while the other letter Evagrius intended for the more personal comfort of a monk he knew.
So much for the historical background to Letter 57. Let us now explore some of the hidden subtleties of the letter to illustrate how Evagrius dealt with bereavement. The struggle Evagrius himself faced is apparent in the letter, particularly at the end, when he confesses that he lamented for Gregory, but turned to the wisdom of Christ to transform his sorrow. Evagrius undergoes a visitation of knowledge, to enable himself to provide words that will transform the sorrow of his audience and of himself.32 Christ the Word "suddenly" visits and speaks to Evagrius by means of knowledge; Evagrius, in the act of writing, visits and makes Christ present to his audience, not only by his own words of comfort, but through the knowledge God granted him. The expression of this knowledge is deeply colored by the language of Scripture. Thus, word and action are essentially intertwined: Evagrius actively assimilates himself to Christ as he writes the letter so as to assimilate his words to Scripture.
In Letter 64, Evagrius discusses the function of letters.33 He states that they are an act of revelation designed to make one person present to another in the face of separation. In them their author reveals present, past, and future. Even those who cannot read benefit from a written letter since the sound of the words effects the same power on the soul as it does on the soul of one who reads. But despite these wonders, Evagrius goes on, letters are imperfect revelations of a person, a murky substitute for the presence of the writer. For example, God seeks to reveal himself to us, yet we have separated ourselves from him by our sins. To overcome this separation, God has written Creation as a kind of letter, using the Son and Spirit as his hand and finger to inscribe the world with language that mediates between himself and humanity. Nevertheless, the letter of Creation is imperfect, and is to be dispensed with once a person has purified himself enough to encounter God face-to-face.
The extensive meditation on letter writing found in Letter 64 shows that Evagrius considered his correspondence to be a spiritual ministry. He crafted his words in the manner he felt the Father crafted his Word. He attempted to make himself present in the same way he felt God did in Creation. He took up specific needs from specific friends and petitioners. He "incarnated" himself into their problems. Then, by means of meditations and contemplations, he invited his readers to move upward out of their difficulties. The body of Letter 57, for instance, consists of six meditations, each of which begins with an aspect of the physical world as a starting point.34 The six topics, when analyzed as a whole, indicate that Evagrius contemplated a series of aspects of the death of Gregory Nazianzus, proceeding from the general theme of death (a), to the corporeal and "psychological" state of the deceased (b-c), to the arrival of angels for the soul (d), to the subject of the death—his spiritual father, Gregory (e)—to the angels' escorting of the soul to its proper habitations (f). This meditation follows the sequence of Gregory's death, beginning from a generalized theme and ending with Gregory's ascension into heaven. The first three points are left without comment; the last three serve as springboards from which Evagrius presents extended insights into the spiritual realm. In the case of these last three observations, the state of Creation—God's letter of revelation to us—becomes the basis of Christ's revelation through Evagrius.
Of particular relevance to the question of Gregory's last will and testament are the fifth topic and its discussion. In the opening of the letter Evagrius begins by discussing his abandonment of his worldly inheritance at the death of his father; he also seems to affirm Gregory's role as his father, realized afresh in the inheritance offered him. Here Evagrius meditates on God's fatherhood, noting that when a son is sick the father does not attempt to heal the son directly, but sends an intermediary to bring healing. This meditation reflects upon, and bases itself upon, Gregory's ministry to Evagrius, as well as Evagrius's to others. Christ is the physician of the soul. Letter 57 is what Evagrius writes to cure his own soul, and it is what he sends to cure the souls of his brothers in Christ—not only those who can read, but the illiterate who can only hear the letter.35
In presenting this material to his audience, Evagrius invites them to participate in the second of the three levels of spiritual contemplation—contemplation of the natural world—in order to progress in the other levels as well. The issue at hand is the need to rid lamentation of one of the besetting sins, sadness [luph/]. In other places, Evagrius identifies this evil thought [logismo/v] as one that attacks anyone who fails to get some memory or pleasure of the mental life. Such a person cherishes the things of this world.36
In his letter, therefore, Evagrius applies a cure that will address the problem of desire for worldly possessions. He commends to his audience the acceptance of those fathers and of those inheritances that are most real (i.e., more spiritual). I have already mentioned how Evagrius prefers the fatherhood Gregory had over him to the one his physical father had. And above these, the fatherhood of God is pre-eminent. Evagrius reinforces the need for his audience to keep not only Gregory's fatherhood in mind, but Abraham's as well. He thereby identifies Gregory with the patriarch and his audience with the sons of Abraham.37 He reminds them that the inheritance that Gregory gave—something restricted to the body—is eventually to be surrendered for a co-inheritance with the angels. Like them, a faithful servant of God becomes a son of God38 and shares in an inheritance that is more enduring and loftier than any human or earthly one. With the arrival of these things the desire for worldly goods ends, and so also sadness. Or at least the sadness is transformed into a disposition that does his reader good.
In his extended treatises on the passions and their cures, Evagrius identifies joy as the antidote to sadness.39 This sadness, although it may feed on the pleasures of this life, is a kind of desire that dries up all pleasure, and is symbolized in Scripture by the viper [e!xidna],40 whose job ought to be (when it is an angelic thought) to "sap away the poisons of the other beasts."41
To effect this joy, Evagrius directs his readers to contemplation of the natural world, to pray,42 to anticipate the day when we all shall stand with the holy angels before the judgment seat of Christ. Note that, in introducing joy, Evagrius integrates all three levels of spiritual contemplation. The goal of eliminating sadness corresponds to the ridding of the passion sadness, an act that is at the first level of one's spiritual journey. The catalyst is knowledge of the physical world. And the antidote is joy, the anticipation one should have of directly gazing upon the Holy Trinity.
A full commentary on Letter 57 would require a treatment much longer than this. I hope that the translation and my brief comments have shown how Evagrius used his theory to deal with situations that deeply affected himself and his friends. He wrote his letters to be a therapy both to himself, and to his readers. Thus, the "consolation of Evagrius" properly locates him as both the subject and object of that consolation. Evagrius struggled alongside those who came to him as children, and he sought to provide them the cure that visited him as he composed his letters: Christ the physician.
Notes
1. This translation is based on the Syriac text of W. Frankenberg,
Evagrius Ponticus, Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu Göttingen und philologisch-historische Klasse (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung,
1912), 606. Discussion of the text follows the translation. Thanks to Jason Zaborowski
for his helpful comments on my translation.
2. 2 Sm 12.23.
3. See, e.g., Ecc 5.3.
4. Evagrius made this vow probably during Easter 383, in Jerusalem at the monastery
of Rufinus and Melania on the Mount of Olives.
5. See Praktikos 95, where Evagrius rebukes the messenger who brings him news of
his father's death.
6. See 2 Cor 7.6.
7. ht($rB. Frankenberg suggests the underlying word
here is para/xrhma. Possibly it is
e0cai/fnhv, which one might expect from a Christian theologian sympathetic
to Platonic terminology.
8. See 2 Cor 4.7.
9. Kephalaia gnostica 3.78; De malignis cogitationibus 20. The latter clarifies
the rather convoluted Syriac construction of the letter, though the thought remains
opaque.
10. Heb 12.22. Jerusalem is, in Evagrius's theology, representative of the soul
(Scholia on Proverbs 12) as well as the coming kingdom of God (Letter 23, 24) and
the state of higher (Kephalaia Gnostica 5.6, 21) or fusikh/
(ibid. 5.88; 6.49) contemplation. Mount Sion is for him, however, direct contemplation
of the Trinity (ibid.).
11. 2 Pt 2.4.
12. Ps 113.24.
13. See Mt 5.7.
14. See Eph 2.19.
15. Perhaps this phrase means "received anointing by him" (Zaborowski).
16. Rev 3.5.
17. 2 Cor 5.10.
18. Examples include the Praktikos and the Chapters on Prayer. Some treatises were
themselves probably complete letters, as suggested by British Library Syriac ms.
14578, which treats Ad virginem as a letter. See Frankenberg, Evagrios, 563-65.
19. Indeed, we shall see this principle at work in Letter 57.
20. Ps.-Basil Letter 8.
21. Ibid. 8.1.
22. This ascription is almost certainly erroneous, due to 1) the references to the
addressee as "sir" (masculine); 2) the consistency with which Evagrius
normally addresses his audience; 3) the terms of address by which he addresses Melania
in his other letters. Add to this the second surviving manuscript containing the
letter. The title for the letter merely reads "by the same author" without
mention of the recipient. See Bunge, Briefe aus der Wüste (Trier: Paulinus-Verlag,
1986), 193-200 for the argument that the letter is quite likely directed to Rufinus.
23. Dating is based on the references to the need for secrecy, as well as on the
highly developed thoughts.
24. See, e.g., Praktikos 89, Epilogue.
25. He follows Mar Babai (d. ca. 628) and argues that Letter 12, 23, and 46 were
directed to Gregory. See Bunge, Briefe, 177-78.
26. P. Gallay, La vie de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze (Lyon/Paris, 1943), 243-44.
27. Gregory Nazianzus, Will (Iuris ecclesiastici Graecorum historia et monumenta,
vol. 2, ed. J. B. Pitra [Rome: Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, 1868], 158.4-7).
28. See Van Dam, Raymond, "Self-Representation in the Will of Gregory of Nazianzus,"
Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 46 (1995):144.
29. Gregory Nazianzus, Will, 155.11-13. See Bunge, Briefe, 178-79, for further comments
on the identification of the recipient of this letter.
30. Bunge only hints at this possibility (Briefe, 374 nn. 2-3). I think my discussion
here shows that there is a stronger case to be made for Letter 57 than for Letter
21, that the subject at hand is Gregory's death.
31. This point is all the more relevant when we consider that Evagrius frequently
uses the same terms of address with the same addressees, the basis upon which Bunge
decides on to whom several of the letters were written.
32. Hence the ambiguous "of" in the title of this paper.
33. Letter 64.1-6.
34. Angels and demons are, of course, part of the physical world for Evagrius.
35. That the illiterate were always part of Evagrius's audience is affirmed by Letter
64.1.
36. Praktikos 10, 19.
37. Note how this reinforces the pre-eminence of Gregory over Evagrius's physical
father, since Abraham is "of the living" (Mt 22.32), whereas he has already
admitted "the death of my father."
38. See Gal 4.5-7.
39. De vitiis quae opposita sunt virtutibus 3.
40. This word appears in the OT only in Aquila's version: Is 59.5.
41. De malignis cogitationibus 13.
42. Chapters on Prayer 16.
Bibliography
Evagrius Ponticus, and Gabriel Bunge. Briefe aus der Wüste. Trier: Paulinus-Verlag; 1986.
Evagrius Ponticus, and W. Frankenberg. Evagrius Ponticus. Abhandlungen der königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen philologisch-historische Klasse, n.s. 13, vol. 2. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung; 1912.
Gallay, P. La vie de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze. Lyon/Paris, 1943.
Pitra, J. B., editor. Iuris ecclesiastici Graecorum historia et monumenta. 2 vols. Rome: Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, 1868.
Van Dam, Raymond. "Self-Representation in the Will of Gregory of Nazianzus." Journal of Theological Studies. N.s. 46 (1995): 118-48.
Back to Evagrius webpage.
Updated June 16, 2002