Marianus

Marianus is known only as a recipient of short letters of spiritual direction from Nilus of Ancyra (d. c. 430), active in the early-5th-century Ancyran milieu of Galatia. The address given for the name varies across the five surviving letters — "the Monk," "the Subdeacon," and "the Bishop" — and the entry is keyed to the subdeacon address; the monastic letters predominate and treat him as an ascetic under correction, urged toward humility and self-judgment, discipline of tongue, eye, and appetite, fasting against "the war of fornication," and contempt for the flesh, while the bishop letter exhorts him to endure trials and asks his prayers. Whether one man held these successive ranks or the name covers more than one correspondent cannot be determined from the letters. Beyond his role as Nilus's correspondent he is otherwise unattested.