is called “The Cells”; and he lived upon one pound [of bread] a day, and a box of oil [every] three months. He had been a man great in pomp and he had made great his body, and had been ministered unto by slaves, yet he laid down a rule that he should pray in the course of [each] day one hundred prayers. He lived by the labour of his hands, and he only accepted the bare price of his daily food [for] all the work he did; and his work was to write books. Before, however, the fifteen years had passed by, he had cleansed his heart, and was held to be worthy of the grace of God, and wisdom and understanding were given to him, and he knew the power of spirits. He composed three volumes, and taught us [therein] the cunning of devils and the snares [laid by the] thoughts.
And the blessed man Evagrius himself related unto us that the devil of fornication [once] made an attack upon him, and that he stood up naked the whole night long in the desert (now it was the season of winter), until his flesh was quite shrivelled and dried up. And the devil of blasphemy [on another occasion] made an attack upon him, and according to what he told us, he passed forty days under the open sky in winter until his flesh became like that of the beasts of the desert. And he also told us that once three devils came to him in the daytime, in the form of three members of a religious body, and they began to discuss the faith with him; one of these declared himself to be an Arian, the second said that he was a Eunomian (i.e., a follower of Eunomius, Bishop of Cyzicus, A.D. 360–364), and the third confessed himself to be of the sect of Apollinarius (Bishop of Laodicea; he died about A.D. 390); but by the Divine Grace which was with him he drove them away, having put them to shame.
And again he told [us] that one day he lost the key of his cell, but he made the sign of the Cross over the door and then put in his hand and opened it, having called Christ to his help. He was beaten with innumerable stripes by the devils, and he learned by experience very much concerning their cunning. He made known unto one of his disciples by prophecy that which should happen unto him after [a period of] eighteen years, and what he said actually came to pass. And he said, “From the time when I entered the desert I have never washed, and I have never eaten any vegetable, or any fruit, or any grapes.” At the end of his life, however, that is to say, in the sixteenth year wherein he departed from the world, he ate compulsorily food which was cooked by fire, and he was obliged to do this because of a weakness of the stomach which had overtaken him, and he was compelled to take food which had been cooked because of this.
