03 — The Sayings
The Apophthegmata of Poemen — the largest single dossier in the alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers, some 180-odd numbered apophthegms gathered under his name, more than for any other father. This section examines the genre of the apophthegm and the shape of the Poemen series, then turns to the heart of his recorded teaching: the logismoi (thoughts), watchfulness, and the custody of the heart. The very size of the dossier is itself the central source-critical question of this guide, treated in full in Section 05.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; master of discernment)
Poemen wrote nothing. He is known almost entirely through the Apophthegmata Patrum, the compiled sayings of the Egyptian fathers — and his name heads by far the largest block of sayings in the alphabetical collection, a dossier so large that it has been called the backbone of that collection (Ward 1984; Guy 1962). This section does two things. First, it describes what an apophthegm is — the brief, often question-and-answer form of “an old man said,” the desert chreia — and surveys the Poemen series as a whole: its size, its representative famous sayings, and why so much should have gathered under one name. Second, it presents the matter that the Apophthegmata most insistently put in Poemen’s mouth: the desert psychology of the thoughts, how a logismos becomes a passion, and the counsel to guard the heart and cut the thought off at once. The systematic and source-critical questions raised here are carried forward to Sections 05, 06, and 07.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Apophthegmata of Poemen | The genre of the apophthegm (the desert chreia, the “give me a word” form, the brevity of “an old man said”); the Poemen series as the largest dossier in the alphabetical collection (~187 sayings in Ward’s translation, larger than Antony, Macarius, or Arsenius); representative famous sayings with careful citation (Poemen 1, the magistrate and the imprisoned brothers; Poemen 2 and the “ten years” of mourning); and why so much gathered under one name — a forward reference to the source-critical problem of Section 05. |
| The Teaching on the Thoughts | Poemen’s sayings on the logismoi (thoughts), nepsis (watchfulness), and custody of the heart: how a thought becomes a passion, the difference between the first suggestion and consent, the image of the thoughts like water and the snake in the jar, the counsel to cut off the thought at once, and the saying on humility “as the breath which comes out of the nostrils.” Related to Evagrius’s eight logismoi, with Poemen’s practical, non-systematic teaching set in contrast to Evagrius’s system. |
See Also
- The Poemen Collection Problem — the source-critical centerpiece: why the dossier is so large, and “one Poemen or many?”
- The Thoughts and Watchfulness — the systematic treatment of nepsis and the passions of which these sayings are the raw material
- The Shaping of the Sayings — Poemen’s circle and its role in the formation and transmission of the Apophthegmata
- Monasticism — the desert origins of the monastic life that the Sayings attest
References
- The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Trans. Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. Rev. ed. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984. (The Poemen series; the standard English translation and verification anchor.)
- Guy, Jean-Claude, S.J. Recherches sur la tradition grecque des Apophthegmata Patrum. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1962; 2nd ed. 1984.
- Harmless, William, S.J. Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Regnault, Lucien, O.S.B. The Day-to-Day Life of the Desert Fathers in Fourth-Century Egypt. Trans. Étienne Poirier, Jr. Petersham: St. Bede’s Publications, 1999.
- Gould, Graham. The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.