Nilus the Solitary (4th/5th cent.)

Greek monastic author.

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.