Editing Mar Awgin (section)

{{Short description|Egyptian monk}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Mar (title)|Mar]]
|name= Awgin
|birth_date= 4th century
|death_date= 363
|feast_day=
|venerated_in= [[Oriental Orthodox Churches]]<br>[[Assyrian Church of the East]]<br>[[Ancient Church of the East]]<br>[[Maronite Church]]
|image=Mor Augin.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption=
|birth_place= [[Suez]], [[Egypt]]
|death_place= [[Nisibis]], [[Turkey]]
|titles=Father of Monasticism in Mesopotamia
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=
|patronage=
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
{{Oriental Orthodox sidebar|expanded=figures}}

'''[[Mar (title)|Mar]] Awgin''' or '''Awgen''' (died 363 AD),{{efn|Christine Chaillot states that Mar Awgin died in A.D. 370.<ref>Christine Chaillot, "The Ancient Oriental Churches", in Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen B. Westerfield Tucker (eds.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=h5VQUdZhx1gC The Oxford History of Christian Worship]'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 165.</ref> However based on the Syriac text, according to [[E. A. Wallis Budge]], it states that Mar Awgin died on the 21st of [[Nisan]] in A.D. 363, as an old man (while noting that there is some doubt about the accuracy of this date).<ref name=EAWB>[[E. A. Wallis Budge]] (ed.), ''The Book of Governors: The Historia Monastica of Thomas, Bishop of Margâ, A.D. 840'' (London, 1893), [https://archive.org/details/bookofgovernorsh01thomuoft Vol. 1], pp. cxxv–cxxxi.</ref>}} also known as '''Awgin of Clysma''' or  '''Saint Eugenios''', was an [[Copts|Egyptian]] monk who, according to traditional accounts, introduced [[Christian monasticism]] to [[Syriac Christianity]]. These accounts, however, are all of late origin and often contain anachronisms. The [[historicity]] of Awgin is not certain.<ref name=GEDSH>Edward G. Mathews, Jr., [https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Awgen-Mar "Awgen, Mar"], in [[Sebastian P. Brock]], Aaron M. Butts, [[George A. Kiraz]] and Lucas Van Rompay (eds.), ''Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition'' (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018).</ref>

The earliest source to mention him dates to the 7th century, about three hundred years after his death. The claim that Awgin introduced monasticism to the Syriac tradition is roundly rejected by modern scholars, who regard it as an indigenous development. The story of Mar Awgin, whether having a factual basis or not, was embellished in order to associate Syriac monasticism with the more illustrious Egyptian tradition of the [[Desert Fathers]].<ref name=GEDSH/><ref>D. J. Wilmshurst, ''The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East'' (London, 2011), p. 41.</ref>