Evagrius Ponticus

2 posts

Evagrius Ponticus
Evagrius Ponticus

Eight bad thoughts come for the monk. The worst one shows up at noon.

Evagrius Ponticus
·383 AD·Kellia, Egypt

The demon of acedia — also called the noonday demon — is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. He presses his attack upon the monk about the fourth hour and besieges the soul until the eighth hour. First of all he makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and that the day is fifty hours long. Then he constrains the monk to look constantly out the windows, to walk outside the cell, to gaze carefully at the sun.

Evagrius Ponticus
·383 AD·Kellia, Egypt

Whereas the other demons are like the sun which rises and sets, touching only one part of the soul, the noonday demon is accustomed to enveloping the entire soul and strangling the mind.