SPSA Church Giving (opens in a new tab)

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty · Catechism · 1249

Faith Q&A › Catechism › 5. Vices or Evils

Do we find lists of vices in the writings of the early Church?

The answer

In addition to vices mentioned in the Holy Bible, there is a list of vices in The Didache,823 which likely dates from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century.

St. Evagrius Ponticus compiled his famous list of eight vices:824 gluttony, lust, greed, sadness, anger, despondency (acedia), vainglory, and pride. These can be divided into three groups:

First: Vices related to material things, namely gluttony, carnal lust, and avarice or greed.

Second: Vices that concern the intrinsic personality, namely sadness or depression, anger, and listlessness or despondency.

Third: Vices that concern reliance on the ego, namely vainglory and pride.

The first group arises from the misuse of instinctive lusts, where a person does not control his eating, drinking, bodily lust, or love of money.

The second group arises from a lack of control of the movements of one’s emotions.

The third group arises from reliance on the ego, which makes one fall prey to seeking vainglory, and pride or haughtiness.

Evagrius’ disciple, St. John Cassian, adopts the same concept but with a slight difference in the order of the vices that highlights the relationship between sadness and despondency. Thus, he lists anger after greed.825

Pope Gregory the Great singles out pride as the mother of all other vices and therefore removes if from the list, omits sadness by subsuming it under despondency, and adds envy to the list of vices. Thus, he produced the list of the “Seven Deadly Sins,”826 which are closely associated with the West in the Middle Ages. These are:

a. Vainglory.

b. Envy.

c. Anger.

d. Dejection.

e. Avarice.

f. Gluttony.

g. Lust.

St. John Climacus, does not insist on any particular classification, holding that by nature, sin knows no order, and therefore cannot be precisely classified. He mentions seven vices, but does not include envy:827

a. Gluttony.

b. Lust.

c. Greed.

d. Sadness.

e. Anger.

f. Vainglory

g. Pride.

We can compare the lists of vices in the writings of Saints Evagrius, John Cassian, and John Climacus:

St. Evagrius St. John Climacus St. John Cassian

Anger

Sadness

Gluttony Gluttony Gluttony

Lust Lust Fornication

Stinginess Greed Greed

or love of money

Anger Anger

Despair Sadness or misery

Lethargy or listlessness Vainglory Vainglory

(acedia)

Pride Pride Love of being noticed

He adds:

Pride Resentment or malice

Slander or Calumny

Talkativeness

Lying

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty

Notes

823 “The Didache” in Early Christian Writings, trans., Maxwell Staniforth and Andrew Louth (Penguin, 1987) 5: p. 193.

824 Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), trans., Robert E. Sinkewicz., ed. Gillian Clark and Andrew Louth (Oxford University Press, 2003): pp. 60–64, 74–90.

825 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 5.2 (NPNF II/11:339).

826 Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job in Three Volumes 31.87–91 (LFHCC 31:489–493).

827 St. John Climacus: Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans., Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell (Paulist Press, 1982) 8–17: p. 146–193.

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Catechism of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Volumes 1 and 2, Books 1–7. First English Edition, 2023. Published by St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Sporting, Alexandria, and Queen St. Mary & Prince Tadros Coptic Orthodox Church, South Brunswick, NJ. Copyright © 2023. Translation and Editing: Youth of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Arabian Gulf, and Egypt.