Description:
Evagrius Ponticus is the living link through whom the ascetic principles of hellenistic philosophers passed into the mainstream of christian monasticism. Although not know by name for generations, Evagrius molded the ideals of western asceticism through his own widely-disseminated works and through his influence on intermediaries like John Cassian and, through Cassian, Saint Benedict of Nursia. To those seeking God alone, he counselled absolute solitude: the solitude of separation from the world and the solitude of the human soul.
Born in 345 in Ibora in Pontus (the present day İverönü in Turkey), Evagrius united the mystical theology of Origen and the rigorous asceticism of the desert monks in a tradition which still lives today.
Brief description: John Eudes Bamberger (1926-2020), entered Gethsemani Abbey in 1950, having earned an MD from the University of Cincinnati the previous year and done his internship at Georgetown University Hospital. A student of Thomas Merton from 1952-1955, he worked with Merton, after his ordination in 1956, in screening applicants to the abbey. He served as abbot of the Abbey of the Genesee, in New York state, from 1971 until 2001. After returning from a term as superior in the Philippines, he lived in a hermitage at Genesee.
Review Quotes: Evagrius received the desert traditionabout prayer that had been developed over several generations before him. But he was the first to organize it into a coherent system.Coptic Church Review