Evagrius Ponticus: The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer

196 Pages·1972·23.582 MB·English

by  John Eudes Bamberger

The Praktikos &
Chapters On Prayer
BOSTON PUBUCUBRim
CQplay Square
CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES; NUMBER FOUR
PRAKTIKOS
CHAPTERS ON PRAYER
CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES
Board of Editors
Louis Bouyer OF THE ORATORY Jean Leclercq OSB
Louis Lekai s o CIST Charles Dumont ocso
Anselm Hoste OSB Teresa Ann Doyle OSB
Luke Anderson s o CIST Mary Gertrude Ballew ocso
Edmund Mikkers ocso Basil De Pinto OSB
Mary Paul Macpherson ocso James Wicksteed ocso
Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan
Managing Editor
M. Basil Pennington ocso
cs : The Climate of Monastic Prayer
I
cs 2: The Theology of Aelred of Rievaulx: An Experiential Theology
cs 3 : The Cistercian Spirit: A Symposium
cs 4: The Praktikos; Chapters on Prayer
cs 8: The Eleventh-Century Background of Ctteaux
cs 10: William of St Thierry: the Man and his Works
csii: The Cistercian Sign Language: A Study in Non-verhal
Communication
cs 12: Rule and Life: An Interdisciplinary Symposium
cs 13: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History
cs 14: The Abbot in Monastic Tradition
cs 15: The Golden Chain: The Theological Anthropology of Isaac
of Stella
CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBER FOUR
Evagrius Ponticus
THE PRAKTIKOS
CHAPTERS ON PRAYER
Translated, with an introduction and notes, by
John Eudes Bamberger ocso
CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1981
Cistercian Studies Series: ISBN 0-87907-800-6
This volume cloth: ISBN 0-87907-804-9
paper: ISBN 0-87907-904-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-152483
© Cistercian Publications, Inc., 1972
THIRD PRINTING
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Ecclesiastical pennission to publish this book was' received from
Ignace Gillet, Archabbot of Citeaux, and Bernard Flanagan,
Bishop of Worcester, April 23, 1969.
CONTENTS
Preface by Jean Leclercq OSB vii
Introduction xxiii
Recovery of the Evagrian Writings xxiii
Life XXXV
The History of Evagrian Theology xlviii
The Writings lix
Evagrius the Writer Ixvii
Doctrine Ixxi
Praktikos i
Introduction 3
Text 12
Chapters on Prayer 43
Introduction 45
Text 52
Selected Bibliography 81
Indexes 83
Old and New Testaments 83
Names of Persons 84
General Index 88
V
ABBREVIATIONS
ACW Ancient Christian Writers (Westminster, Md., 1946- )
DS Dictionnaire de Spiritualite (Paris, 1932- )
DTC Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique (Paris, 1903-1950)
ES J. Muyldermans, Evagriana Syriaca (Louvain, 1952)
LH Palladius, The Lausiac History. ACW 34 (Washington,
1964)
LTK Lexikonfiir Theologie und Kirche. 2 ed. (Freiburg, 1957-1966)
PG Patrologia Graeca. Ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1844-1855)
PL Patrologia Latina. Ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857-1866)
OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica {Rome, 19s S- )
PO Patrologia Orientalis. Ed. R. Griffin, F. Nau (Paris, 1897- )
RAM Revue d^Ascetique et de Mystique (Toulouse, 1920- )
RSR Recherches des Sciences Religieuses (Louvain, 1912- )
SC Sources Chretiennes (Paris, 1942- )
TP A. and C. Guillaumont, Traite Pratique ou le Moine,
SC 170, 171 (Paris, 1971)
ZAM Zeitschrift filr Askeze und Mystik (Munich, 1926- )
VI
PREFACE
FIRST SIGHT one is surprised to see the writings of a
Greek author of the fourth century in a series of publica-
JL
JLtions which go under the title of “Cistercian,” that is, con-
cerned with the monastic order founded in the Middle Ages, in the
West and, although today spread out across the world from the
British Isles to Japan, still not having any monasteries in the Greek
Near East. However, as we shall see, these texts have a real signi-
ficance for Cistercian studies. Unfortunately, up to now only
patrologists or others versed in Syriac, Greek, Armenian, or Latin
could have access to them. Now they are readily available in
English thanks to the learning and labors of a Cistercian monk
who is an orientalist, one familiar with the original languages, who
has done graduate study in the field and who has published articles
in reviews devoted to oriental studies. In addition, he is also a
psychiatrist with considerable practical experience in monastic
spirituality. Thus, he keeps in close contact with real life and ably
brings to the fore Evagrius’ great psychological insight.
As with all the great spiritual masters of antiquity, Evagrius
offers not only interest but also something of practical value. This
is true in regards to his own life but also in his being a witness to an
ever-living tradition and a practical and stimulating guide for
working out a way of life even today.
The writings left by Evagrius have contributed to the building of
the spiritual tradition from which we all draw. During his lifetime
he was criticized. After his death his writings were attacked—to a
vu
greater or lesser extent, according to the times and the regions—
and even sometimes condemned. Sometimes he was also praised.
But more frequently he was ignored, either because certain of his
writings were attributed to others or else because the texts were lost
only to be found recently by manuscript hunters. However, in the
living currents of spirituality his influence was constantly at work,
like some underground river giving freshness and vitality to the
soil and causing springs to erupt, further and further along, where-
ever it flowed unseen, unknown. In the West those of his texts
which were of a more practical nature—particularly his sentences
which were so easy to memorize—circulated in several Latin
versions.^ Throughout the Middle Ages they spread through
Europe from monastery to monastery in Italy, France, Austria,
Spain. An eighth-century monk of Liguge inserted certain extracts
from his writings into a sort of digest which he entitled Liber
Scintillarum, A Book of Sparks^ which was very widely diffused.
A Cistercian of Clairvaux in the twelfth century did much the
same.
However, to understand the role of Evagrius in the evolution of
Christian spirituality and to situate him properly in relation to the
twelfth century and in particular to the Cistercians, it is necessary
to enter more deeply into the matter. A mere historical knowledge
of the man and the diffusion of his works is not sufficient. It is
necessary to seek to grasp, as a whole, the religious experiences
which fashioned the milieu of wliich Evagrius was a part, and which
gave direction to the tradition which would inspire the lives of the
monks of the Middle Ages and find a reflection in their writings.
We actually know relatively little of the events of the life of
Evagrius and only some of his writings have come down to us, in
B. Lambert, “Sententiae ad coenobitas translatae a S. Hieronymo (recte
I.
Rufmo),” Bibliotheca Hieronymiana Manuscripta (Steenbrugge, 1970), pp.
45S-7, gives the list of the manuscripts of the sentences of Evagrius accord-
ing to the three Latin translations: 26 mss. of which 24 are of the seventh to
twelfth centuries, 2 of the fifteenth century. This indicates a rather large
circulation and influence of these sentences during the early Middle Ages and
the Golden Age of Citeaux. Twenty of them certainly come from monasteries;
the six others are of unknown provernance.