The Nicene Age · AD 313–400

Evagrius of Antioch

d. c. AD 393 · Bishop of Antioch (Eustathian line) · Latin translator of the Life of Antony · Antioch → Italy → Antioch

The Nicene Age

Who Evagrius of Antioch was

The aristocratic Antiochene who spent a decade among the Latins, brought Jerome east as his guest, and made the free, vivid Latin Life of Antony that carried the desert to the West — the very book two officials at Trier picked up in a hut, in the conversion-scene Augustine retells in the Confessions. Consecrated in old age as the tiny Eustathian party's bishop of Antioch, he prolonged the city's schism and translated its greatest export. Not Evagrius Ponticus, his monastic contemporary.

Also listed in the bishops of Antioch.

Common questions

When did Evagrius die?

Evagrius of Antioch is dated d. c. AD 393 in the archive, which places Evagrius in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Evagrius write?

Evagrius of Antioch has 2 catalogued writings in the archive: The Latin Life of Antony and Treatises on diverse topics. 1 of these is lost, known only from later citation.

Which early sources mention Evagrius?

Evagrius of Antioch is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Jerome of Stridon and Jerome. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Evagrius from?

The archive associates Evagrius of Antioch with Antioch, Italy, Antioch. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Writings (2)

The Latin Life of Antony

His free, eloquent version of Athanasius's Life — the text that reached Trier and turned Augustine's friends
[A sense-for-sense translation, he says in the preface, 'lest the flavour be lost']

Earliest witness · Greek tradition (c. 165 manuscripts) (10th c. onward)

Read the interlinear source text →

Treatises on diverse topics

Read aloud to Jerome, never published, never seen again
He read to me treatises on diverse topics, which he had not yet published. (Jerome, On Illustrious Men 125)
Lost — known only from later citation.

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Chronicle of Jerome (the friend who carried Jerome to the desert's edge)

c. AD 380
Jerome of Stridon · Chronicle, ann. Abr. · source text

On Illustrious Men 125

c. AD 393
Evagrius, bishop of Antioch, of keen and fervid intellect, while yet a presbyter read to me various treatises of his… the Life of the blessed Antony he translated from the Greek of Athanasius into our tongue.
Jerome · 125 · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The 2 places the sources put Evagrius, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.

  1. 1Antioch
  2. 2Italyprovince only

See these places on the atlas →