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Course 3 · Lesson 7.2

Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 3 outline

Module 1: The Idea of a Rule

  1. What a rule of life is, and what it is for
  2. Pachomius and the first written rule
  3. Basil of Caesarea and his Rules
  4. Benedict: the Rule as a school of the Lord’s service
  5. Adapting a monastic rule for ordinary life

Module 2: The Hours and the Psalms

  1. Origins of fixed-hour prayer in Jewish and early Christian practice
  2. The Divine Office in the West and the hours in the East
  3. How to pray the Psalms: lament, praise, trust, wisdom and imprecation
  4. Building a simple office for one person

Module 3: Scripture and the Prayer of the Heart

  1. Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation
  2. Meditative reading compared with study and with Ignatian imaginative prayer
  3. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its history and its Eastern setting
  4. Practicing the prayer of the heart, with its cautions

Module 4: Fasting, Giving, Rest and the Year

  1. Fasting in Scripture and tradition, and its safe limits
  2. Almsgiving and care for the poor
  3. Sabbath rest and the Lord’s Day: how traditions differ
  4. The church year: Advent to Pentecost and the ordinary weeks

Module 5: Conscience, Confession and Worship Alone

  1. Examination of conscience: methods old and new
  2. Confession in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions
  3. Repentance, confession to God and to a trusted person when no minister is available
  4. What worship alone can include: prayer, Scripture, song, the hours
  5. What the traditions say requires a church or ordained minister

Module 6: Seasons and Ordinary Duties

  1. Silence as a discipline and its dangers
  2. Planning a day, a weekend and a longer retreat
  3. Work as part of the rule: ora et labora
  4. Hospitality, family and neighbor

Module 7: Dryness, Perseverance and Review

  1. Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches
  2. Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon
  3. Doubt and perseverance
  4. Accountability for a rule of life
  5. Reviewing and revising a rule at thirty days, ninety days and one year

All courses

Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 7.2

What you will learn

  • Define acedia and explain how it differs from ordinary tiredness, dryness and depression.
  • Describe Evagrius’s and Cassian’s accounts of it.
  • Trace how acedia was folded into sloth in the later list of seven capital sins.
  • Apply the traditional remedies in a modern rule.

The big idea

Acedia is a spiritual weariness: restlessness, boredom and discouragement that make the practice of faith feel pointless and the wish to quit very strong. Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century called it the noonday demon and ranked it among the eight harmful thoughts. John Cassian described it at length. Their remedy was not a technique but endurance: stay put, keep to the appointed work and prayer, do simple tasks patiently and tell a trusted elder. The old description fits many modern experiences, though it should not be confused with a medical illness.

Key terms

Acedia
From the Greek for lack of care. A state of spiritual listlessness, restlessness and discouragement with the life one has chosen.
Logismoi
Evagrius’s Greek word for the harmful thoughts or impulses that tempt a person, eight in his list.
Noonday demon
Evagrius’s name for acedia, drawing on Psalm 91:6 in the Greek version, which speaks of the demon of noonday.
Sloth
The Latin name for the sin in the later list of seven capital sins. It includes but is not identical with acedia.
Cell
The monk’s small room, and by extension the place of regular prayer and work where the monk stays.
Elder
An experienced monk or Christian who gives counsel to others.

Background

Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345 to 399) was a monk and writer who lived in the Egyptian desert. In his Praktikos he listed eight evil thoughts: gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory and pride. He described acedia as the most burdensome. In the Greek text of Psalm 91:6 (Septuagint 90:6), the phrase translated in the King James Version as the destruction that wasteth at noonday reads as the demon of noonday, and Evagrius applied it to acedia. He wrote that the monk feels that the sun barely moves, that the day is fifty hours long, and is tempted to look out the window and think of leaving the cell.

John Cassian, who had known Evagrius’s circle, described acedia in Book 10 of the Institutes. He called it weariness or distress of heart and said it afflicts the monk at midday like a fever. He noted that the monk begins to hate his place, despise his brothers and think another place or work would be better. Later in the West, Gregory the Great reduced the eight thoughts to seven and joined acedia with sadness, and Thomas Aquinas discussed acedia as a sorrow about spiritual good. The Latin word became sloth, a word that now suggests mere laziness, which is narrower than the original.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The symptoms

The old descriptions are vivid. The person feels restless, cannot settle to prayer or work, finds the place and the people irritating, looks repeatedly at the clock and imagines that life would be better elsewhere. A kind of sorrow and emptiness comes over the day. The person may exaggerate how long the practice has gone on and how little it has achieved.

These symptoms are common, and they are not limited to monks. A person in a long marriage, a demanding job, a settled routine of prayer or a church community may feel the same: the sense that the commitment has become pointless and the wish to leave it. The tradition names this feeling so that it can be recognized.

Step 2: What acedia is not

Acedia is not simply tiredness, which sleep cures. It is not dryness in the sense of the previous lesson, though the two can overlap. It is not clinical depression, which is an illness with physical and psychological features that needs medical care. Some of the symptoms look alike: low energy, discouragement, restlessness. A person who is unsure should seek advice from a physician or counselor as well as from a spiritual guide.

Acedia is also not a reason to judge oneself harshly. The ancient writers treated it as a trial that everyone who stays with a commitment meets, a temptation to resist and not a sin already committed by feeling it.

Step 3: The traditional remedies

The remedies in the tradition are simple and humbling. First, stay. Do not leave the cell, the post, the marriage or the rule because of a noonday mood. Many of the desert sayings advise staying put and waiting. Second, keep working. Cassian recommends manual labor and says that the monk should do his work steadily. Third, pray in short bursts and persevere, using a psalm or a short prayer. Fourth, reflect on the end of the day and of life and on the promise of reward, and remember why the commitment was made. Fifth, tell an elder. Acedia thrives in secrecy.

The advice to endure should be read with discernment. The tradition does not tell a person to stay in an abusive or harmful situation. It addresses the restlessness that comes with a commitment that is good in itself. Where harm is real, leaving may be right, and a trusted counselor can help to judge.

Step 4: Acedia today

Some modern writers see acedia in the restlessness of constant distraction, in boredom with ordinary tasks and in the wish to switch from one project or relationship to the next. A person’s phone, with its promise of something more interesting, can be a modern window of the cell. Whether this reading is fair is debated, but the remedies carry over: stay with the task, limit distractions, keep small commitments, and speak to someone.

For a rule of life, acedia is a reason to prepare in advance. When the rule feels pointless, that is the point at which it is most needed. A floor, a companion and a review date let the person ride out the weeks until the mood passes.

  1. At what time of day am I most tempted to give up, and why?
  2. What do I fantasize about leaving?
  3. Is my restlessness a sign of a real problem or a passing mood?
  4. What is the small task I could stay with today?
  5. Whom could I tell about the temptation to quit?
  6. How do I use distraction to avoid the work of attention?

Examples

The midday slump

A man who has kept a midday psalm for a year finds himself bored and irritated and wants to drop it. He decides to keep it for one more month, shortens it to one verse and tells his friend. The mood passes. (A constructed example.)

Modern restlessness

A woman moves from hobby to hobby and church to church, never finishing anything. A counselor suggests that she keep one commitment for a year. (A constructed example.)

When to leave

A man in a harmful workplace feels the pull to quit and fears it is acedia. His pastor and a counselor help him to see that the workplace is abusive, and he leaves with their support. (A constructed example. The tradition’s advice to stay applies to good commitments.)

Different perspectives

The Orthodox view

Orthodox teaching preserves Evagrius’s and Cassian’s accounts in the Philokalia and monastic tradition. Acedia is treated as a trial of the spiritual life, to be met with perseverance, labor, prayer and obedience to an elder.

The Catholic view

Catholic teaching lists sloth as one of the capital sins and, following Aquinas, understands acedia as sorrow about divine good that leads one to neglect spiritual duties. The Catechism names acedia as a form of discouragement in prayer.

The Protestant view

Protestants do not usually use the word, but Puritan and pastoral writers describe similar states of spiritual listlessness and prescribe diligence, the means of grace and the encouragement of fellow believers.

The scholarly and clinical view

Historians note that acedia in Evagrius is a demon or thought tied to the monastic situation, and that later sloth is a different category. Clinicians note overlap in symptoms with depression and advise that persistent symptoms be assessed medically.

Why it matters

Acedia explains why people abandon good commitments, including a rule of life, at the exact point where they would begin to bear fruit. Knowing that the old writers named the feeling and prescribed remedies helps the student not to treat it as a verdict on the practice. The old advice to stay, work, pray and tell someone is practical.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Acedia is just laziness.

Correction: Sloth in later English suggests laziness, but acedia in Evagrius and Cassian is a restless, discouraged weariness that can afflict busy people.

Misunderstanding: The tradition tells everyone to endure everything.

Correction: The advice addresses the temptation to leave a good commitment. It does not tell anyone to stay in harm. A counselor can help to judge.

Misunderstanding: Acedia is the same as depression.

Correction: The symptoms overlap, but depression is a medical condition that needs treatment. A person unsure should seek both medical and spiritual advice.

Knowledge check

What is acedia, and who first described it as the noonday demon?

Acedia is a spiritual weariness marked by restlessness, boredom and discouragement, with a wish to leave the place and commitment one has chosen. Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345 to 399) called it the noonday demon, drawing on Psalm 91:6 in the Greek version, and listed it among the eight harmful thoughts.

What did Cassian say about acedia?

In Book 10 of the Institutes he called it weariness or distress of heart that afflicts the monk at midday like a fever, leading him to hate his place, despise his brothers and think another place would be better. He recommended steady work, persistence and counsel.

What remedies did the tradition recommend?

Stay in the place, keep working, pray in short bursts, remember why the commitment was made and tell an elder. The advice addresses the temptation to leave a good commitment and is not an instruction to stay in harm.

How did acedia become sloth?

Gregory the Great reduced Evagrius’s eight thoughts to seven and joined acedia with sadness. Aquinas discussed acedia as sorrow about divine good. In Latin the word became sloth, which in later English suggests laziness and is narrower than the original.

Think it through

  1. When has a good commitment felt pointless to you, and what happened?
  2. How do you tell the difference between acedia and a real call to change?
  3. What distractions act as your window?

Independent assignment

A noonday plan

In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Identify the time of day when you are most tempted to abandon something good. Describe the temptation in detail. Write a short plan for that time: one task to stay with, one short prayer, one person to tell. Keep the plan for two weeks and note the results. If you suspect depression, speak to a physician. Do not post it.

Further study