Editing Mar Awgin

{{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=
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|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
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{{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>

==Biography==

===In Egypt===
Originally, Saint Eugenios was a pearl-fisher from the island Clysma or [[El Kulzom|Kolzum]] near [[Suez]] in [[Egypt]]. After having worked for 25 years, he joined the monastery of [[Pachomius]] in Upper Egypt, where he worked as a baker. He is reported to have possessed spiritual gifts and to have worked miracles, and he drew some following from among the [[monk]]s.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

===In Mesopotamia===
About 70 monks accompanied him when he left Egypt for [[Mesopotamia]], where he founded a monastery on [[Mt. Izla]] above the city of [[Nisibis]].{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The location was well chosen, for Nisibis lay on the eastern edge of the [[Roman Empire]], which had just embraced [[Christianity]] as the official religion. The rest of Mesopotamia was under [[Sassanid]] rule, which tried to revive the [[Zoroastrian]] religion and occasionally persecuted the [[Christians|Christian]] population.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The community on Mt. Izla grew rapidly, and from here other monasteries were founded throughout Mesopotamia, [[Iran|Persia]], [[Armenia]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], and even [[India]] and [[China]].{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

A crisis occurred during the 6th century: to please the [[Zoroastrian]] rulers, the [[Assyrian Church of the East|Assyrian Church]] decided all monks and [[nun]]s should marry. Many subsequently transferred into the [[Miaphysite]] Church that followed [[West Syriac Rite]], and spiritual life declined in the Assyrian Church as a result. But the reforms were soon reverted. [[Abraham the Great of Kashkar]] founded a new monastery on [[Mt. Izla]], and he and his successor [[Babai the Great]] revived the strict monastic movement. Married monks were driven out, the teaching of the church was set on a firm orthodox basis, and Assyrian monasticism flourished for another thousand years.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

==See also==
* [[Abraham the Great of Kashkar]] (father of the Assyrian monastic revival in the 6th century)

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Bedjan]]. ''Acta Martyrum'', Paris, 1892, tome iii, pp.&nbsp;376–480

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{{Coptic saints}}
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[[Category:4th-century births]]
[[Category:363 deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Egyptian Christian monks]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Egypt]]
[[Category:Mesopotamian saints]]
[[Category:Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church]]
[[Category:Syriac Orthodox Church saints]]