Evagrios Pontikos

   One of the most interesting monastic thinkers and writers of the fourth century. His mentors were Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzos (qq.v.), from whom Evagrios acquired a passion for theology and monasticism (q.v.). His support of Origen (q.v.) led him to state that Christ was not the second person of the Trinity, but a pure intellect united to the Logos. His Origenism was later condemned at the Council of Constantinople (q.v.) in 553. Nonetheless, his writings on monastic spirituality were enormously influential, although they were circulated under pseudonyms like Neilos of Ankyra (q.v.) because they were so obviously influenced by Origenism. He conceived of monasticism as a mental prayer, as essentially contemplation, laying the basis for a mystical tradition in monasticism that Hesychasm (q.v.) was a later expression of. The last 16 years of his life were spent in the desert of Egypt (q.v.) at the great monastic centers of Nitria and Kellia (qq.v.), where he met Makarios the Great (q.v.) before he died in 399.