Prologue VI

[6.] They wear the sheepskin – those always carrying around in their bodies the death of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10) and muzzling all the irrational passions of the body, cutting back the wickedness of the soul by their communion in good; and loving poverty but fleeing from avarice as the mother of idolatry (Col. 3:5)

The sheepskin or melote is piece of clothing gained by the slaying of a sheep. It therefore carries the connotation of death. Praktikos 52 and KG VI, 42 lifts the veil to the symbolic meaning of the sheepskin:

52. To separate the body from the soul belongs exclusively to him who united them; but to separate the soul from the body belongs to anyone who desires virtue The life of withdrawal has been called by the fathers a rehearsal for death and flight from the body.

42. The death of Christ is the mysterious operation that restores to eternal life those who have hoped in him in this life.

The sheepskin symbolizes the “beastly passions” (KG VI, 85), which we ought to “slay” in our ascetic efforts by “spiritual love”:

35. The The passions of the soul derive from men; the passions of the body derive from the body. The passions of the body are cut back by self-control; those of the soul are cut back by spiritual love.

The passions are not merely “bodily” as we shall see. There are also definite “spiritual” passions. This means that for Evagrius evil is not a necessary and constitutive part of being embodied. Evil is the perversion of that which is created good:

I,40. There was [a time] when evil did not exist, and there will be [a time] when it no longer exists; but there was never [a time] when virtue did not exist and there will never be [a time] when it does not exist: for the seeds of virtue are indestructible. And I am convinced by the rich man [almost but not completely given over to every evil] who was condemned to hell because of his evil, and who felt compassion for his brothers (Luke 16:19-31). For to have pity is a very beautiful seed of virtue.

All is created good without the presence of evil Evil is a latecomer and does not belong to the essence of things, because whatever is touched by evil can be converted back to the good as is evidenced in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man being completely self-centered by the fires of suffering learns the virtue of compassion and thereby gains a virtue. Evagrius takes a wholly different message from this passage of Scripture than many of us would today!
+ Fr. Gregory Wassen