Nilus of Ancyra
Nilus Ancyranus
Biography
An ascetic writer, who lived in the region of present-day Ancyra at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, perhaps close to John Chrysostom, Nilus probably died around 430, before the Council of Ephesus, which finds no reflection in his work. He paid little attention to Christological quarrels.
We know nothing for certain about him. The collection of letters published under his name in volume 79 of the Patrologia Graeca is not authentic; several letters are excerpts or quotations from other authors (e.g., Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom).
The Narrative by Nilus the Solitary of the carnage of the monks of Mount Sinai and the captivity of his son Theodulus (Narrationes), long read as autobiographical, is better understood as a novel, and the Nilian authorship of this text, recognised by all the manuscripts, is even today sometimes questioned.
His works still enjoy great favour in Eastern monasticism, including: Liber de monastica exercitatione, a vigorous plea for a return to monastic poverty; Peristeria seu tractatus de virtutibus excolandis et vitiis fugiendis; De Monachorum praestantia, an apology for the ascetical life of recollection far from the cities; Tractatus de paupertate voluntaria; Sermo in illud : Nunc, qui habet sacculum, tollat (Sermon on Lk 22:36).
His Commentary on the Song of Songs testifies to the influence of those by Origen and Gregory of Nyssa. This is the only Greek commentary of this little biblical book that comments on it to the end (Song 8:14). He seems to have not known Theodoret's commentary.
A certain kinship of Nilus’ thought with the thought of Evagrius Ponticus, for instance in his monastic treatises, explains why several works of Evagrius (condemned at the council of 553) have come down to us under the name of Nilus. Thanks to the work of A. Guillaumont and P. Géhin, the texts falsely attributed to Nilus have been returned to Evagrius without any doubt.
Works
- Commentarii in Canticum Canticorum
- De magistris et discipulis
- De monachorum praestantia
- De uoluntaria paupertate ad Magnam
- Epistulae
