By Robert Wiesner
Even though at least two ascetics preceded him into the desert wilds of North Africa (Paul of Thebes and Mark of Athens), Anthony is yet widely considered the Father of Monasticism. Neither Mark nor Paul had monks in obedience following them. Anthony, on the other hand, became the abbot of a large number of followers; thus, he is rightly considered the founder of the amazing monastic flowering in the Egyptian desert. Others preceded him in the ascetic life, such as Saint Thecla and the Therapeuti of coastal Egypt, but these earlier figures remained fairly close to population centers. Anthony determined to leave human company behind altogether and retire to as remote an area he could find.
Anthony was born into a well-to-do family. When he was about twenty years old, his parents died, leaving him their estate and the care of a younger sister. He was struck by the Gospel exhortation to “sell all you have and give to the poor” and he proceeded to follow this message. After disposing of his property and leaving his sister in the care of a group of Christian virgins (an early convent!), he embarked upon his ascetic career.
For about fifteen years he remained in the area of his hometown with another ascetic, working as a swineherd. He then determined to live in strict solitude and moved far into the desert, taking a long-abandoned Roman fort for his dwelling. Gradually a group of like-minded men established themselves around him. They begged him to leave his fort and guide them in the spiritual life, a notion he resisted for roughly twenty years, but eventually he yielded to their pleas and emerged to become Abbot (Abba, or Father) to these early monks. Thus was established the tradition of the Egyptian Desert Fathers.
After five years of instructing his followers, Anthony again withdrew from society, but not in so strict a fashion as before; he freely saw any who came to visit him and even traveled to Alexandria during the Diocletian persecution to comfort those imprisoned by Roman authorities. He became acquainted with Athanasius, who was to write Anthony’s Life — which became the first bestseller in Christian history, even into the Middle Ages. During the Arian controversy, Anthony became a staunch supporter of Athanasius throughout the latter’s exiles and trials. When Anthony’s death drew near, he instructed his followers to give a sheepskin cloak to Athanasius. Another cloak he bequeathed to Serapion of Thmuis, a disciple who was instrumental in developing Egyptian monasticism to a high degree.
While there are many stories about Anthony and many entries in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, probably the incidents of his many trials of temptation capture the imagination most often. He was frequently tormented by demons, sometime with vivid and powerful temptations, but also, and not infrequently, by violent physical attacks, some of them vicious enough to leave him in a state his followers interpreted as death. Anthony would revive from his wounds, however, and immediately return to the fight.
He would eventually overcome the demons by prayer and fasting, thereby developing a spiritual blueprint for generations of monks to come. The temptations of Saint Anthony have very often been depicted in art, from Renaissance artists all the way through the moderns, represented most famously by Salvador Dali. In prose, Gustave Flaubert retold these tales in his The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
Anthony once asked the Lord how one can escape the snares of the devil; the answer was simply: “Humility!”
A number of miraculous healings have been attributed to Saint Anthony, who is often invoked for skin diseases.
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