Troparion in Tone 4
O Father Anthony,
By your zeal you equaled Elijah;
You imitated the life of John the Baptist;
You founded a city in the wilderness;
You established the Church on the
firm foundation of your prayers.
Pray to Christ our God
That our souls may be saved!
Kontakion in Tone 2
You rejected the cares of this world
Fulfilling your life in meekness,
Imitating the forerunner in righteousness:
Together with him we honor you,
O Father of fathers, Anthony.
Saint
Anthony the Great is known as the Father of monasticism, and the
long ascetical sermon in The Life of St. Anthony by St. Athanasios
(Sections 16-34), could be called the first monastic Rule.
He was born in
Egypt in the village of Coma, near the desert of the Thebaid, in the year
251. His parents were pious Christians of illustrious lineage. Anthony was a
serious child and was respectful and obedient to his parents. He loved to
attend church services, and he listened to the Holy Scripture so
attentively, that he remembered what he heard all his life.
When St. Anthony
was about twenty years old, he lost his parents, but he was responsible for
the care of his younger sister. Going to church about six months later, the
youth reflected on how the faithful, in the Acts of the Apostles (04:35),
sold their possessions and gave the proceeds to the Apostles for the needy.
Then he entered
the church and heard the Gospel passage where Christ speaks to the rich
young man: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give it
to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me" (Mt
19:21). Anthony felt that these words applied to him. Therefore, he sold
the property that he received after the death of his parents, then
distributed the money to the poor, and left his sister in the care of pious
virgins in a convent.
Leaving his
parental home, St. Anthony began his ascetical life in a hut not far from
his village. By working with his hands, he was able to earn his livelihood
and also alms for the poor. Sometimes, the holy youth also visited other
ascetics living in the area, and from each he sought direction and benefit.
He turned to one particular ascetic for guidance in the spiritual life.
In this period of
his life St. Anthony endured terrible temptations from the devil. The Enemy
of the race of man troubled the young ascetic with thoughts of his former
life, doubts about his chosen path, concern for his sister, and he tempted
Anthony with lewd thoughts and carnal feelings. But the saint extinguished
that fire by meditating on Christ and by thinking of eternal punishment,
thereby overcoming the devil.
Realizing that the
devil would undoubtedly attack him in another manner, St. Anthony prayed and
intensified his efforts. Anthony prayed that the Lord would show him the
path of salvation. And he was granted a vision. The ascetic beheld a man,
who by turns alternately finished a prayer, and then began to work. This was
an angel, which the Lord had sent to instruct His chosen one.
St. Anthony tried
to accustom himself to a stricter way of life. He partook of food only after
sunset, he spent all night praying until dawn. Soon he slept only every
third day. But the devil would not cease his tricks, and trying to scare the
monk, he appeared under the guise of monstrous phantoms. The saint however
protected himself with the Life-Creating Cross. Finally the Enemy appeared
to him in the guise of a frightful looking black child, and hypocritically
declaring himself beaten, he thought he could tempt the saint into vanity
and pride. The saint, however, vanquished the Enemy with prayer.
For even greater
solitude, St. Anthony moved farther away from the village, into a graveyard.
He asked a friend to bring him a little bread on designated days, then shut
himself in a tomb. Then the devils pounced upon the saint intending to kill
him, and inflicted terrible wounds upon him. By the providence of the Lord,
Anthony's friend arrived the next day to bring him his food. Seeing him
lying on the ground as if dead, he took him back to the village. They
thought the saint was dead and prepared for his burial. At midnight, St.
Anthony regained consciousness and told his friend to carry him back to the
tombs.
St. Anthony's
staunchness was greater than the wiles of the Enemy. Taking the form of
ferocious beasts, the devils tried to force the saint to leave that place,
but he defeated them by trusting in the Lord. Looking up, the saint saw the
roof opening, as it were, and a ray of light coming down toward him. The
demons disappeared and he cried out, "Where have You been, O Merciful Jesus?
Why didn't You appear from the very beginning to end my pain?"
The Lord replied,
"I was here, Anthony, but wanted to see your struggle. Now, since you have
not yielded, I shall always help you and make your name known throughout all
the world." After this vision St. Anthony was healed of his wounds and felt
stronger than before. He was then thirty-five years of age.
Having gained
spiritual experience in his struggle with the devil, St. Anthony considered
going into the Thebaid desert to serve the Lord. He asked the Elder (to whom
he had turned for guidance at the beginning of his monastic journey) to go
into the desert with him. The Elder, while blessing him in the then as yet
unheard of exploit of being a hermit, decided not to accompany him because
of his age.
St. Anthony went
into the desert alone. The devil tried to hinder him, by placing a large
silver disc in his path, then gold, but the saint ignored it and passed by.
He found an abandoned fort on the other side of the river and settled there,
barricading the entrance with stones. His faithful friend brought him bread
twice a year, and there was water inside the fort.
St. Anthony spent
twenty years in complete isolation and constant struggle with the demons,
and he finally achieved perfect calm. The saint's friends removed the stones
from the entrance , and they went to St. Anthony and besought him to take
them under his guidance. Soon St. Anthony's cell was surrounded by several
monasteries, and the saint acted as a father and guide to their inhabitants,
giving spiritual instruction to all who came into the desert seeking
salvation. He increased the zeal of those who were already monks, and
inspired others with a love for the ascetical life. He told them to strive
to please the Lord, and not to become faint-hearted in their labors. He also
urged them not to fear demonic assaults, but to repel the Enemy by the power
of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord.
In the year 311
there was a fierce persecution against Christians, in the reign of the
emperor Maximian. Wishing to suffer with the holy martyrs, St. Anthony left
the desert and went to Alexandria. He openly ministered to those in prison,
he was present at the trial and interrogations of the confessors, and
accompanying the martyrs to the place of execution. It pleased the Lord to
preserve him, however, for the benefit of Christians.
At the close of
the persecution, the saint returned to the desert and continued his
exploits. The Lord granted the saint the gift of wonderworking, casting out
demons and healing the sick by the power of his prayer. The great crowds of
people coming to him disrupted his solitude, and he went off still farther,
into the inner desert where he settled atop a high elevation. But the
brethren of the monasteries sought him out and asked him to visit their
communities.
Another time St.
Anthony left the desert and arrived in Alexandria to defend the Orthodox
Faith against the Manichaean and Arian heresies. Knowing that the name of
St. Anthony was venerated by all the Church, the Arians said that he adhered
to their heretical teaching. But St. Anthony publicly denounced Arianism in
front of everyone and in the presence of the bishop. During his brief stay
at Alexandria, he converted a great multitude of pagans to Christ.
People from
all walks of life loved the saint and sought his advice. Pagan philosophers
once came to Abba Anthony intending to mock him for his lack of education,
but by his words he reduced them to silence. Emperor Constantine the Great (May
21) and his sons wrote to St. Anthony and
asked him for a reply. He praised the emperor for his belief in Christ, and
advised him to remember the future judgement, and to know that Christ is the
true King.
St. Anthony spent
eighty-five years in the solitary desert. Shortly before his death, he told
the brethren that soon he would be taken from them. He instructed them to
preserve the Orthodox Faith in its purity, to avoid any association with
heretics, and not to be negligent in their monastic struggles.
"Strive to be united first with the Lord, and then with the saints, so that
after death they may receive you as familiar friends into the everlasting
dwellings."
The saint
instructed two of his disciples, who had attended him in the final fifteen
years of his life, to bury him in the desert and not in Alexandria.
He left one of his monastic mantles to St. Athanasios of Alexandria (January
18), and the other to St. Serapion of
Thmuis (March
21). St. Anthony died peacefully in the
year 356, at age 105, and he was buried in the desert by his disciples.
The Life of the
famed ascetic St. Anthony the Great was written by St. Athanasios of
Alexandria. This is the first biography of a saint who was not a martyr, and
is considered to be one of the finest of St. Athanasios' writings. St. John
Chrysostom recommends that this Life be read by every Christian.
"These things are
insignificant compared with Anthony's virtues," writes St. Athanasios, "but
judge from them what the man of God Anthony was like. From his youth until
his old age, he kept his zeal for asceticism, he did not give in to the
desire for costly foods because of his age, nor did he alter his clothing
because of the infirmity of his body. He did not even wash his feet with
water. He remained very healthy, and he could see well because his eyes were
sound and undimmed. Not one of his teeth fell out, but near the gums they
had become worn due to his advanced age. He remained strong in his hands and
feet.... He was spoken of everywhere, and was admired by everyone, and was
sought even by those who had not seen him, which is evidence of his virtue
and of a soul dear to God."
The following
works of St. Anthony have come down to us:
Twenty Sermons
on the virtues, primarily monastic (probably spurious).
Seven Letters
to various Egyptian monasteries concerning moral perfection, and the
monastic life as a spiritual struggle.
A Rule for
monastics (not regarded as an authentic work of St. Anthony).
In the year 544
the relics of St. Anthony the Great were transferred to Alexandria, and
after the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens in the seventh century, they
were transferred to Constantinople. The holy relics were transferred from
Constantinople in the tenth-eleventh centuries to a diocese outside Vienna.
In the fifteenth century they were brought to Arles (in France), to
the church of St. Julian.
