Saint Anthony, the Abbot:

Feast day : 17 January

Saint Anthony the Abbot was a Christian monk who lived during the period 251 to 356. He is also known by several other names as Anthony the Great, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, and Anthony of Thebes. From his youth till his death at the age of 105, he maintained the same fervor in his holy exercises, inspiring and instructing his disciples and followers to maintain perpetual watchfulness against temptations through prayer, mortification and humility. He converted many through his preaching and miracles. Heathen philosophers often went to dispute with him, and always returned much astonished at his humility, meekness, sanctity and extraordinary wisdom. He admirably proved to them the truth and security of the Christian religion and confirmed it by miracles. He is the patron saint of infectious diseases especially skin diseases such as ergotism, erysipelas, and shingles, which were referred to as St. Anthony's fire. His feast day is celebrated on January 17.

Early life:

Saint Anthony was born at Coma in Egypt in the year 251 to a rich Christian family. His parents kept him at home to prevent him from being tainted by bad example and vices of the world. He grew up to be obedient to his parents and committed in all his church duties. However, he lost both his parents before he was twenty years of age. After their death he found himself in charge of a large estate and the care of his younger sister. Six months later, when he heard in a Church sermon the words of Jesus to a rich young man “Go sell what thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven” he went home and did just that. He sold most of his estate and gave them to the poor, keeping only what he might require for the needs of his sister and himself. But again a few months later when he heard another Church sermon in which Jesus said “Be not solicitous for tomorrow”, he distributed what he had reserved till then. He placed his sister in a house of virgins and retired into solitude near his village. Manual labour, pious reading and prayer were his main occupation. He soon became a perfect model of humility, Christian charity, prayer and all virtues.

Monastic life:

The devil assailed him with several temptations beginning with thoughts on how he could have used his estate considering the difficulties of his condition then. Later he was afflicted with filthy thoughts and obscene imaginations. Satan appeared to him first taking the form of a woman to seduce him and then of a black boy to terrify him. He opposed all these assaults with the strictest watchfulness over his senses, austere fasts, humility and prayer. His food was only bread, with a little salt. He drank only water and never ate before sunset, sometimes once in two or four days. He mostly lay on a rush mat or on the bare floor. In a quest for more solitude he moved to an old sepulchre where the devil again tormented him. Once he was beaten so grievously that he lay almost dead, covered with bruises and wounds for almost a day till his friend found him. When he came to his senses, he yelled out at the devils “Behold! Here I am; do all you are able against me: nothing shall separate me from Christ my Lord”. On hearing this, the devils renewed their attack on him with terrible clamours and appeared in hideous shapes of the most frightful wild beasts and kept terrifying him till a ray of heavenly light fell on him and chased them away causing him to cry out “Where was thou, my Lord and my Master? Why wast thou not here, from the beginning of my conflict, to assuage my pains!” A voice answered him “Anthony, I was here the whole time’; I stood by thee, and beheld thy combat: and because thou hast manfully withstood thine enemies, I will always protect thee, and will render thy name famous throughout the earth.”

In the year 285, he crossed the Nile and took up his abode in the ruins of an old castle on the top of the mountains where he lived almost twenty years of his life. In the year 305 he came down from his mountain and founded his first monastery at Phaium. This new life led him into despair but he overcame it through prayer and hard manual labor. Retirement in his cell was his delight and divine contemplation and prayer his preoccupation. He ate a few ounces of bread soaked in water and a little salt. He urged his brethren to allot least time to the care of the body and always have eternity in their minds, to reflect every morning that perhaps they might not live till night and every evening that perhaps they might never see the morning and to perform every action as if it were the last of their lives, with all the fervor of their souls to please God. He often exhorted them to watch against temptations and to resist the devil with vigor. Speaking on overcoming the assaults of the devil, he told his brethren “He dreads fasting, prayer, humility and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him; the illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which he triumphed over and disarmed them.” He told them in what manner the fiend in his rage had assaulted him by visible phantoms, but that these disappeared while he persevered in prayer. He told them, that once when the devil appeared to him in glory, and said, “Ask what you please; I am the power of God;” he invoked the holy name of Jesus and he vanished.

In the year 311, when Maximinus began his persecution of Christians, he went to Alexandria hoping to be martyred. He served and encouraged the martyrs in the mines and dungeons, before the tribunals and at the places of execution. The following year when the persecutions abated, he retired back to his monastery. Later he built another monastery called Pispir near Nile. Once in a vision he saw the whole earth covered so thick with snares, that it seemed impossible to set foot without falling into them. At this sight he cried out, trembling, “Who, O Lord, can escape them all?” A voice answered him: “Humility, O Anthony!” Once he fell into dejection and found it difficult to continue in contemplation. But an angel appeared to him in a vision and taught him to apply himself to manual labour. The angel appeared platting mats of palm tree leaves when rising to pray and after sometime again sitting down to work and said to him “Do this, and thou shalt be saved.” He did so but spent his time in manual labour also in prayer. He spent his nights in heavenly contemplation, praying on his knees till sunrise and sometimes till three in the afternoon. In the year 339, he saw in a vision the mules kicking down the altar. He foretold the Arian heresy that came two years later. At the request of the bishops, in the year 355, he travelled to Alexandria, to confound the Arians preaching aloud in that city, that God the Son is not a creature, but of the same substance with the Father; and that the impious Arians, who called him a creature, did not differ from the heathens themselves, who worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. All the people ran to see him and rejoiced to hear him; even the pagans, struck with the dignity of his character, flocked to him saying “We desire to see the man of God.” He converted many through his preaching and miracles. Heathen philosophers often went to dispute with him, and always returned much astonished at his humility, meekness, sanctity and extraordinary wisdom. He admirably proved to them the truth and security of the Christian religion and confirmed it by miracles saying “We only by naming Jesus Christ crucified, put to flight those devils which you adore as gods; and where the sign of the cross is formed, magic and charms lose their power.”

When Belacius, the Duke or General of Egypt began persecuting the Catholics with extreme fury, St. Anthony wrote a letter to him, exhorting him to leave the servants of Christ in peace. Belacius tore the letter, then spit and trampled upon it and threatened to make the abbot the next victim of his fury; but five days later, as he was riding with Nestorius, the Governor of Egypt, their horses began to play and the Governor’s horse threw Belacius from his horse, biting his thigh and inflicting a deep wound that led to his miserable death the third day.

Death:

A little before his death which he foretold, he visited his monks and left instructions for his burial. He asked for his body to be buried in the earth, on his mountain by his two disciples Macarius and Amathas who had remained with him the last fifteen years. He retired to his cell and soon fell sick. He again instructed that his body be privately buried in the earth saying “In the day of the Resurrection, I shall receive it incorruptible from the hand of Christ.” He added, “Farewell, my children, Anthony is departing, and will be no longer with you.” At these words they embraced him, and he, stretching out his feet, without any other sign calmly ceased to breathe. His died on January 17, 356 at the age of 105. From his youth to his death, he persisted in his rigorous holy exercises, never changing his diet or clothing, yet he lived without sickness nor did his sight fail him.

In the year 561, his body was discovered during the reign of Justinian and with great solemnity it was transferred to Alexandria, later to Constantinople and is now held at Vienne in France. Several miracles were attributed to his intercession especially the infectious diseases that ceased to spread in Europe in the 11th Century after the intercession of St. Anthony. His feast day is celebrated on January 17.