Laurentius

Laurentius is known only as one of three monks (alongside Faustus and Epinicus) addressed jointly by Nilus of Ancyra in this cluster of five letters, placing him in the early-5th-century monastic milieu around Ancyra (modern Ankara) in Galatia. The letters reveal that the trio had written to Nilus describing frightening experiences at their places of monastic retreat: blasphemous thoughts, nighttime terrors, apparitions of barbarians, camels, and serpents, and other torments they attributed to demons. Nilus answers as their spiritual director, urging them not to fear these assaults, assuring them that demons attack precisely those who resist them, consoling them as a fellow veteran of such temptations, and exhorting them to take refuge in Christ and not neglect honest manual labor after the example of the Apostle Paul. Beyond his role as a recipient of this pastoral counsel, Laurentius is otherwise unattested.