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= Anthony_the_Great =
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Introduction
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Anthony the Great (; ; ; ; - 17 January 356) was a Christian monk
from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished
from other saints named Anthony, such as , by various epithets: , , ,
, , and . For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later
Christian monasticism, he is also known as the . His feast day is
celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic
churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
The biography of Anthony's life by Athanasius of Alexandria helped to
spread the concept of Christian monasticism, particularly in Western
Europe via its Latin translations. He is often erroneously considered
the first Christian monk, but as his biography and other sources make
clear, there were many ascetics before him. Anthony was, however,
among the first known to go into the wilderness (about AD 270), which
seems to have contributed to his renown. Accounts of Anthony enduring
supernatural temptation during his sojourn in the Eastern Desert of
Egypt inspired the depiction of his temptations in visual art and
literature.
Anthony is invoked against infectious diseases, particularly skin
diseases. In the past, many such afflictions, including ergotism,
erysipelas, and shingles, were referred to as 'Saint Anthony's fire'.
''Life of Anthony''
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Most of what is known about Anthony comes from the 'Life of Anthony'.
Written in Greek by Athanasius of Alexandria, it depicts Anthony as
an illiterate and holy man who, through his existence in a primordial
landscape, has an absolute connection to the divine truth, which is
always in harmony with that of Athanasius as the biographer.
A continuation of the genre of secular Greek biography, it became his
most widely read work. Sometime before 374 it was translated into
Latin by Evagrius of Antioch. The Latin translation helped the 'Life'
become one of the best-known works of literature in the Christian
world, a status it would hold through the Middle Ages.
Translated into several languages, it became something of a "best
seller" in its day and played an important role in the spreading of
the ascetic ideal in Eastern and Western Christianity. It later served
as an inspiration to Christian monastics in both the East and the
West, and helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism,
particularly in Western Europe via its Latin translations.
Many stories are also told about Anthony in the 'Sayings of the Desert
Fathers'.
Anthony probably spoke only his native language, Coptic, but his
sayings were spread in a Greek translation. He himself dictated
letters in Coptic, seven of which are extant.
Early years
=============
Anthony was born in Koma in Lower Egypt to wealthy landowner parents.
When he was about 20 years old, his parents died and left him with the
care of his unmarried sister. Shortly thereafter, he decided to follow
the gospel exhortation in Matthew 19: 21, "If you want to be perfect,
go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have
treasures in heaven." Anthony gave away some of his family's lands to
his neighbors, sold the remaining property, and donated the funds to
the poor. He then left to live an ascetic life, placing his sister
with a group of Christian virgins.
Hermit
========
For the next fifteen years, Anthony remained in the area, spending the
first years as the disciple of another local hermit. There are various
legends that he worked as a swineherd during this period.
According to the 'Temptation of Saint Anthony' (1878) by Félicien
Rops:
{{blockquote|Anthony is sometimes considered the first monk, and the
first to initiate solitary desertification, but there were others
before him. There were already ascetic hermits (the 'Therapeutae'),
and loosely organized cenobitic communities were described by the
Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria in the 1st century AD as long
established in the harsh environment of Lake Mareotis and in other
less accessible regions. Philo opined that "this class of persons may
be met with in many places, for both Greece and barbarian countries
want to enjoy whatever is perfectly good." Christian ascetics such as
Thecla had likewise retreated to isolated locations at the outskirts
of cities. Anthony is notable for having decided to surpass this
tradition and headed out into the desert proper. He left for the
alkaline Nitrian Desert (later the location of the noted monasteries
of Nitria, Kellia, and Scetis) on the edge of the Western Desert about
95 km west of Alexandria. He remained there for 13 years.}}
Anthony maintained a very strict ascetic diet. He ate only bread, salt
and water and never meat or wine. He ate at most only once a day and
sometimes fasted through two or four days.
According to Athanasius, the devil fought Anthony by afflicting him
with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame
by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art. After
that, he moved to one of the tombs near his native village. There it
was that the 'Life' records those strange conflicts with demons in the
shape of wild beasts, who inflicted blows upon him, and sometimes left
him nearly dead.
After fifteen years of this life, at the age of thirty-five, Anthony
determined to withdraw from the habitations of men and retire in
absolute solitude. He went into the desert to a mountain by the Nile
called Pispir (now Der-el-Memun), opposite Arsinoë. There he lived
strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some 20 years.
Food was thrown to him over the wall. He was at times visited by
pilgrims, whom he refused to see; but gradually a number of would-be
disciples established themselves in caves and in huts around the
mountain. Thus, a colony of ascetics was formed, who begged Anthony to
come forth and be their guide in the spiritual life. Eventually, he
yielded to their importunities and, about the year 305, emerged from
his retreat. To the surprise of all, he appeared to be not emaciated,
but healthy in mind and body.Painting of Saint Anthony, a part of 'The
Visitation with [[Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot' by Piero di
Cosimo, ]]For five or six years he devoted himself to the instruction
and organization of the great body of monks that had grown up around
him; but then he once again withdrew into the inner desert that lay
between the Nile and the Red Sea, near the shore of which he fixed his
abode on a mountain (Mount Colzim) where still stands the monastery
that bears his name, Der Mar Antonios. Here he spent the last
forty-five years of his life, in a seclusion, not so strict as Pispir,
for he freely saw those who came to visit him, and he used to cross
the desert to Pispir with considerable frequency. Amid the Diocletian
Persecutions, around 311 Anthony went to Alexandria and was
conspicuous visiting those who were imprisoned.
Father of Monks
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Anthony was not the first ascetic or hermit, but he may properly be
called the "Father of Monasticism" in Christianity, as he organized
his disciples into a community and later, following the spread of
Athanasius's hagiography, was the inspiration for similar communities
throughout Egypt and elsewhere. Macarius the Great was a disciple of
Anthony. Visitors traveled great distances to see the celebrated holy
man. Anthony is said to have spoken to those of a spiritual
disposition, leaving the task of addressing the more worldly visitors
to Macarius. Macarius later founded a monastic community in the Scetic
desert.
The fame of Anthony spread and reached Emperor Constantine, who wrote
to him requesting his prayers. The brethren were pleased with the
Emperor's letter, but Anthony was not overawed and wrote back
exhorting the Emperor and his sons not to esteem this world but
remember the next.
The stories of the meeting of Anthony and Paul of Thebes, the raven
who brought them bread, Anthony being sent to fetch the cloak given
him by "Athanasius the bishop" to bury Paul's body in, and Paul's
death before he returned, are among the familiar legends of the
'Life'. However, belief in the existence of Paul seems to have existed
quite independently of the 'Life'.
In 338, he left the desert temporarily to visit Alexandria to help
refute the teachings of Arius.
Final days
============
When Anthony sensed his death approaching, he commanded his disciples
to give his staff to Macarius of Egypt, and to give one sheepskin
cloak to Athanasius of Alexandria and the other sheepskin cloak to
Serapion of Thmuis, his disciple. Anthony was interred, according to
his instructions, in a grave next to his cell.
Temptation
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Accounts of Anthony enduring preternatural temptation during his
sojourn in the Eastern Desert of Egypt inspired the often-repeated
subject of the temptation of St. Anthony in Western art and
literature.
Anthony is said to have faced a series of preternatural temptations
during his pilgrimage to the desert. The first to report on the
temptation was his contemporary Athanasius of Alexandria. It is
possible these events, like the paintings, are full of rich metaphor
or in the case of the animals of the desert, perhaps a vision or
dream. Emphasis on these stories, however, did not really begin until
the Middle Ages when the psychology of the individual became of
greater interest.
Some of the stories included in Anthony's biography are perpetuated
now mostly in paintings, where they give an opportunity for artists to
depict their more lurid or bizarre interpretations. Many artists,
including Martin Schongauer, Hieronymus Bosch, Joos van Craesbeeck,
Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Matthias Grünewald,
Jacob van Swanenburg, and Salvador Dalí, have depicted these incidents
from the life of Anthony; in prose, the tale was retold and
embellished by Gustave Flaubert in 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony'.
The satyr and the centaur
===========================
Anthony was on a journey in the desert to find Paul of Thebes, who
according to his dream was a better Hermit than he. Anthony had been
under the impression that he was the first person to ever dwell in the
desert; however, due to the dream, Anthony was called into the desert
to find his "better", Paul. On his way there, he ran into two
creatures in the forms of a centaur and a satyr. Although chroniclers
sometimes postulated that they might have been living beings, Western
theology considers them to have been demons.
While traveling through the desert, Anthony first found the centaur, a
"creature of mingled shape, half horse half-man", whom he asked about
directions. The creature tried to speak in an unintelligible language,
but ultimately pointed with his hand the way desired, and then ran
away and vanished from sight. It was interpreted as a demon trying to
terrify him, or alternately a creature engendered by the desert.
Anthony found next the satyr, "a manikin with hooked snout, horned
forehead, and extremities like goats's feet." This creature was
peaceful and offered him fruits, and when Anthony asked who he was,
the satyr replied, "I'm a mortal being and one of those inhabitants of
the desert whom the Gentiles, deluded by various forms of error,
worship under the names of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi. I am sent to
represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the favor of
your Lord and ours, who, we have learnt, came once to save the world,
and 'whose sound has gone forth into all the earth.'" Upon hearing
this, Anthony was overjoyed and rejoiced over the glory of Christ. He
condemned the city of Alexandria for worshipping monsters instead of
God while beasts like the satyr spoke about Christ.
Silver and gold
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Another time Anthony was travelling and found a plate of silver coins
in his path. Since he was in the middle of the desert, where it didn't
make any sense for anyone to be there, he declared that the silver was
a temptation from the devil. Immediately after Anthony's declaration,
the silver vanished. Soon, after walking some more in that desert, he
found a pile of gold coins that was also a temptation from the devil.
Anthony cast the gold into a fire, and the gold coins immediately
disappeared just like the silver ones.
After these two events, he had a vision where the whole world was
covered with snares and traps. Anthony prayed saying, "Oh good Lord,
who may escape from these snares?” He was responded to by a voice that
said, "Humility shall escape them without more."
Demons in the cave
====================
Being an ascetic, Anthony went out to live in the tombs away from the
village. There were so many demons in the cave though, that Anthony's
servant had to carry him out because they had beaten him to death.
When the hermits were gathered to Anthony's corpse to mourn his death,
Anthony was revived. He demanded that his servants take him back to
that cave where the demons had beaten him. When he got there he called
out to the demons, and they came back as wild beasts to rip him to
shreds. Suddenly a bright light flashed, and the demons ran away.
Anthony knew that the light must have come from God, and he asked God
where he was before when the demons attacked him. God replied, "I was
here but I would see and abide to see thy battle, and because thou
hast mainly fought and well maintained thy battle, I shall make thy
name to be spread through all the world."
Veneration
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Anthony had been secretly buried on the mountaintop where he had
chosen to live. His remains were reportedly discovered in 361 and
transferred to Alexandria. Some time later, they were taken from
Alexandria to Constantinople, so that they might escape the
destruction being perpetrated by invading Saracens. In the eleventh
century, the Byzantine emperor gave them to the French Count Jocelin.
Jocelin had them transferred to La-Motte-Saint-Didier, later renamed.
There, Jocelin undertook to build a church to house the remains, but
died before the church was even started. The building was finally
erected in 1297 and became a centre of veneration and pilgrimage,
known as Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye.
Anthony is credited with assisting in a number of miraculous healings,
primarily from ergotism, which became known as "St. Anthony's Fire".
Two local noblemen credited his assistance in their recovery from the
disease. They then founded the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony in
honor of him, who specialized in nursing the victims of skin diseases.
He is venerated especially by the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit
for his close association with Paul of Thebes, after whom they take
their name. In the 'Life of St. Paul the First Hermit', by Jerome, it
is recorded that it was Anthony who found Paul towards the end of
Paul's life and without whom it is doubtful Paul would be known.
Veneration of Anthony in the East is more restrained. There are
comparatively few icons and paintings of him. He is, however, regarded
as the "first master of the desert and the pinnacle of holy monks",
and there are monastic communities of the Maronite, Chaldean, and
Orthodox churches which state that they follow his monastic rule.
During the Middle Ages, Anthony, along with Quirinus of Neuss,
Cornelius and Hubertus, was venerated as one of the Four Holy Marshals
in the Rhineland.
Anthony is remembered in the Anglican Communion with a Lesser Festival
on 17 January.
Though Anthony himself did not organize or create a monastery, a
community grew around him based on his example of living an ascetic
and isolated life. Athanasius' biography helped propagate Anthony's
ideals. Athanasius writes, "For monks, the life of Anthony is a
sufficient example of asceticism.
His story influenced the conversion of Augustine of Hippo and John
Chrysostom.
The main centre of veneration of this saint in the Canary Islands
(Spain) is located in the town of La Matanza de Acentejo, on the
island of Tenerife. The 'sanctuary of San Antonio Abad' is one of the
oldest temples in the Canary Islands, founded shortly after the
completion of the conquest of the archipelago.
Coptic literature
===================
Examples of purely Coptic literature are the works of Anthony and
Pachomius, who spoke only Coptic, and the sermons and preaching of
Shenouda the Archmandrite, who chose to write only in Coptic. The
earliest original writings in the Coptic language were the letters of
Anthony. During the 3rd and 4th centuries, many ecclesiastics and
monks wrote in Coptic.
See also
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* Mount Colzim, Anthony's "Inner mountain"
* List of Coptic saints
* Abba Anoub of Scetis
* Chariton the Confessor (mid-3rd century - c. 350), contemporary monk
in the Judaean desert
* Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers, early Christian hermits,
ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt
beginning around the third century AD
* Abba Or of Nitria
* Hilarion (291-371), anchorite and saint considered by some to be the
founder of Palestinian monasticism
* Monastery of Saint Anthony, Egypt
* Pachomius the Great (c. 292 - 348), Egyptian saint generally
recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism
* Patron saints of ailments, illness and dangers
* Paul of Thebes (c. 226/7 - c. 341), known as "Paul, the First
Hermit", who preceded both Anthony and Chariton
* St. Anthony Hall, American fraternity and literary society
* Saint Anthony the Great, patron saint archive
* Serapion of Thmuis, disciple of Anthony
* Pitirim of Porphyry, disciple of Anthony
External links
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* [
http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7084 "Spiritual Considerations on the
Life of Saint Antony the Great"] is a manuscript, from 1864, in
Arabic, that is a translation of a Latin work about the life of Saint
Anthony
* [
http://www.christianiconography.info/anthonyAbbot.html "Saint
Anthony Abbot"] at the [
http://www.christianiconography.info Christian
Iconography] website
* [
http://www.christianiconography.info/goldenLegend/anthonyAbbot.htm
"Of the Life of Saint Anthony"] from Caxton's translation of the
Golden Legend
*
[
http://www.stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Anthony%20abbot-128/StAnthony-Abbot.htm
Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square]
*
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great
