Saint Anthony the Great, Father of Monasticism
Abba of the Egyptian desert
- Feast day
- January 17
- Lived
- c. 251–356
- Patronage
- Monastics, those tempted, sufferers of skin disease
Saint Anthony of Egypt is the father of Christian monasticism. His Life, written by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, is one of the most influential books ever written in the Church.
Life
Hearing the Gospel words 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor' read in church at about twenty years old, Anthony did exactly that, arranged for his sister's care, and went out to live under discipline at the edge of his village.
He moved progressively deeper into the desert: to the tombs, then to an abandoned fort at Pispir where he lived twenty years in solitude, then to the inner mountain by the Red Sea where his monastery still stands. His struggles with demonic assault, described plainly by Athanasius, gave the Christian tradition its vocabulary for spiritual warfare.
Teaching
Anthony twice left the desert for Alexandria — once to encourage the confessors during persecution, once to preach against Arianism. He was illiterate in Greek philosophy and demolished its practitioners in argument nonetheless.
'I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world,' he said, 'and I groaned and asked: what can get through such snares? And I heard a voice saying to me: humility.'