Nilus the Solitary
author: Sebastian P. Brock
source date: 2011
edition published: 2016-09-22-16:00
availability: Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

Nilus the Solitary

https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Nilus-the-Solitary http://syriaca.org/bibl/406 397 http://syriaca.org/person/657 [person] [Greek monastic author.]

(4th/5th cent.)

Greek monastic author. A number of writings in Greek are associated with Nilus, abbot of a monastery near Ankyra (Ankara); among these are several which are in fact by Evagrius of Pontus (preserved in Syriac, however, with their correct attribution). The works which are translated into Syriac under the name of ‘Nilus the Solitary’ consist of the following: a collection of some 160 short sayings entitled (in some mss.) ‘Pearls’ ( CPG 6068); these are related to a Greek collection attributed either to Nilus or to Hesychius ( CPG 6583); a Discourse on the monastic way of life ( CPG 6060), which seems to be a different, and older, recension of the Greek text on this subject under the name of Nilus ( CPG 6046); and four ‘Admonitions’, or ‘Letters’, on different ascetic topics; the first and third of these are addressed to Philotheos ( CPG 6061) and Theosebios ( CPG 6064) respectively. None of these four texts can be identified as known Greek texts, though they seem to have been translated from Greek.

Sources

CPG 6043–6084.
P. Bettiolo, Gli scritti siriaci di Nilo il Solitario (1983). (Syr. with IT and introduction)

Sebastian P. Brock