On Illustrious Men

125. Evagrius the bishop

4. G. Nauroy, “Jérôme lecteur et censeur de l’exégèse d’Ambroise,” Jérôme entre l’Occident et l’Orient, ed. Duval, 173–203; S. M. Oberhelman, “Jerome’s earliest attack on Ambrose,” TAPA 121 (1991): 377–401. references Q 4, 144–80, M. G. Mara — Dr, 39–40 — CPL 123–165 — DHGE 2, 1091–1108, P. de Labriolle — DSp 1, 425–28, G. Bardy — EEC 12 , 41–44, L. J. Swift — LThK 13 , 495–97, C. Jacob — NCE 1, 372–75, M. R. P. McGuire — TRE 2, 362–86, E. Dassmann CXXV. EVAGRIUS THE BISHOP vagrius, bishop of Antioch,1 a man of keen and extraordinary intelligence, while still a priest read to me tractates on diverse uJpoqevsewn, subjects, which he had not yet published,2 and he translated, from Greek to Latin, Athanasius’s Life of Blessed Antony.3 notes 1. Evagrius of Antioch, c. 320–c. 394; not to be confused with Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345–c. 399), excluded probably because of his Origenist leanings and because Rufinus was his pupil. 2. Jerome had enjoyed the hospitality and encouragement of Evagrius during a period of illness prior to his departure to the desert in Chalcis, and used him as a conduit for his mail after arriving there. Writing to Damasus in Rome in 376 (ep. 15.5), Jerome requests, “and, lest the obscurity of the place in which I dwell should baffle the letter carriers, deign to direct your epistle to the priest Evagrius whom you know very well” (ACW 33, 73). See also ep. 1.15: “our friend Evagrius” (ACW 33, 27 and 189 n. 22); ep. 7.2: “the letter was brought to me through the instrumentality of the holy Evagrius in that part of the desert which draws a vast line of demarcation between the Syrians and the Saracens” (ACW 33, 41). 3. Evagrius replaced an earlier (c. 365), crudely literal Latin translation with his own newer (c. 370) version following classical principles; cf. W. Berschin, Greek Letters (1988), 48–49 [see also, loc. cit., 57–58], quoting the interesting Prolog in which Evagrius defends his procedures, later reproduced by Jerome in his ep. 57, ad Pammachium de optimo genere interpretandi. For the Life of Antony: PG 26, 835–976; PL 73, 125–170; on which see R. T. ON ILLUSTRIOUS MEN 159 ...