ONE of the most influential and controversial monastic theologians of the fourth century, Evagrius of Pontus, has been alternately hailed as a saint and condemned as a heretic throughout the centuries since his death.  The influence of his writings is incalculable: in the West his teachings were principally transmitted by his disciple John Cassian; while in the East his texts have always been widely read, albeit often under the pseudonyms of less-suspicious authors.

THE translations and editions of texts available here are the by-products of research undertaken in Oxford from 1995-2000: these translations are in the Public Domain, and may be freely cited in any medium without further permissions.  It is the translator’s intention to update and add texts to this site, so that “selections ” will eventually become complete texts. Collaborators in this work are welcome, provided it is agreed that all translations will be available in Public Domain. Readers are warned that errors undoubtedly abound both in transcriptions of the Greek and in the accompanying translations: however, errors reported to the e-mail address below will be gratefully received and corrected.

IN order to view the Greek text properly it is necessary to have a unitype font such as Palatino Linotype.  Several unitype fonts are automatically available in computers using Windows 2000 or later.  By way of explanation it should be added that the large (18 pt) font size employed in the following pages facilitates their classroom-projection and use in teaching. 

FINALLY, serious students of Evagrius should take note of both: (1) the careful translations and commentary available in Robert Sinkewicz' Evagrius of Pontus, the Greek Ascetic Corpus, (Oxford, 2003); and (2) the excellent and regularly-updated bibliography of Evagrian scholarship and resources available at the Evagrius Ponticus Website compiled and maintained by Joel  Kalvesmaki: http://evagriusponticus.net/bibliography.htm

PLEASE  feel free to forward suggestions and/or criticisms: 

Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B. < luke@valyermo.com >

Saint Andrew's Abbey

Valyermo, CA 93563, USA

(http://www.valyermo.com )

This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990....x....  ’ “”.