St. Pachomius Library

St. Anthony the Great

III/IV Centuries
The Patriach of All Monks, St. Anthony of Egypt, was born c. 251 in Koma, Middle Egypt. Orphaned at 20, he gave his sister enough to live on and gave the rest of his inheritance to the poor. He joined a monastery and became a disciple of Paul of Thebes. Anthony became a solitary at 35. On Mt. Pispir, he suffered visions from the devil, which many artists have attempted to represent. In 313, when Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, Anthony moved to another mountain, where Dayr Mari Antonios still stands. Anthony left the desert only once to travel to Alexandria to fight Arianism. Anthony gathered hermits into loose communities and was one of the first to create guidelines for monastics. He died in 356.
Karen Rae Keck

ABOUT:
- St. Athanasius of Alexandria: Life of Saint Antony. --- MSBP
- St. Jerome: Vita Sancti Pauli (Life of St. Paul of Thebes). PL 23:25. The story of Anthony's visit to Paul in the Egyptian desert. Extremely influential hagiographic work, both in the West and in the East. Also contains some remarkable comments about centaurs and fauns.
  - The Life of Paulus the First Hermit. Fremantle translation, 1893. --- SPL
WORKS:
- Sermo de vanitate mundi (On the Vanity of the World). PG 40:961.
- Sermones 1-20 ad monachos (Twenty Sermons to the Monks). PG 40:963.
- Epistolæ 1-7. PG 40:977.
- Epistolæ 1-20. PG 40:999.
- Epistola ad Theodorum. PG 40:1065.
- Regulæ et præcepta (Rules and Precepts). PG 40:1065.
- Spiritualia Documenta. PG 40:1073.
- Admonitiones. PG 40:1079.
- Sententiarum expositio (Explanation of the Sentences). PG 40:1083.
- Responsiones. PG 40:1093 & 1097.
- De moribus hominis et bona conversatione (On the Morals of Man and Good Conduct). PG 162:479.

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