Editing Anthony the Great (section)

== Life ==
=== Early years ===
Anthony was born in [[Koma, Egypt|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.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} He then left to live an [[asceticism|ascetic]] life,{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} placing his sister with a group of [[Consecrated virgin|Christian virgins]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Athanasius|title=Life of Antony|year=1998|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=0-8146-2377-8|others=Carolinne White, trans|volume=3|page=10}}</ref>

=== Hermit ===
[[File:StAnthony.jpg|thumb|Coptic icon of Saint Anthony]]
For the next fifteen years, Anthony remained in the area,{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} spending the first years as the disciple of another local [[hermit]].<ref name="ButlerLives1991" /> There are various legends that he worked as a [[swineherd]] during this period.<ref>{{cite web|last=Sax|first=Boria|title=How Saint Anthony Brought Fire to the World|url=http://www.h-net.org/~nilas/seasons/stanthony.html|access-date=4 January 2013}}</ref>

According to the ''Temptation of Saint Anthony'' (1878) by [[Félicien Rops]]:

{{blockquote|Anthony is sometimes considered the first monk,{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}  and the first to initiate solitary desertification,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://orthodoxthought.sovietpedia.com/2017/03/a-few-words-about-life-and-writings-of.html|title=A few words about the life and writings of St. Anthony the Great|website=orthodoxthought.sovietpedia.com|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325025353/http://orthodoxthought.sovietpedia.com/2017/03/a-few-words-about-life-and-writings-of.html|archive-date=25 March 2017|url-status=usurped}}</ref> but there were others before him. There were already [[asceticism|ascetic]] [[hermit]]s (the ''[[Therapeutae]]''), and loosely organized [[cenobitic]] communities were described by the [[Jewish philosophy|Jewish philosopher]] [[Philo of Alexandria]] in the 1st century&nbsp;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."<ref>{{cite book|last=Philo|title=De Vita Contemplativa|trans-title={{langx|en|The Contemplative Life}} |url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book34.html }}.</ref> 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 (monastic site)|Nitria]], [[Kellia]], and [[Scetis]]) on the edge of the [[Libyan Desert|Western Desert]] about {{convert|95|km|0|abbr=on|sp=us}} west of [[Early centers of Christianity#Alexandria|Alexandria]]. He remained there for 13 years.<ref name="ButlerLives1991" />}}

Anthony maintained a very strict ascetic diet. He ate only bread, salt and water and never meat or wine.<ref>Watterson, Barbara. (1989). ''Coptic Egypt''. Scottish Academic Press. p. 57. {{ISBN|978-0707305561}} "His food consisted of bread, salt and water: meat and wine he never touched at all. He slept upon a mat, and sometimes upon the bare ground; and never washed or cleansed his body with oil and strigil."</ref> He ate at most only once a day and sometimes [[Fasting|fasted]] through two or four days.<ref>Smedley, Edward; Rose, Hugh James; Rose, Henry John. (1845). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101078163167&view=1up&seq=238 ''Encyclopaedia Metropolitana'']. Volume 20. London. p. 228. "He never tasted food till sunset, and sometimes fasted through two or even four days; his diet was of the simplest kind, bread, salt and water, his bed was straw, or frequently bare ground."</ref><ref>Harmless, William. (2004). ''Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism''. Oxford University Press. pp. 61–62. {{ISBN|0-19-516222-6}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Butler">{{CE1913 |inline=1  |first=Cuthbert |last=Butler |wstitle=St. Anthony |volume=1}}</ref>

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 [[Dayr al-Maymūn|Pispir]] (now Der-el-Memun), opposite [[Faiyum|Arsinoë]].{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] fort for some 20 years.<ref name="ButlerLives1991" /> 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.<ref name="Butler" />[[File:Piero di Cosimo 025.jpg|thumb|261px|Painting of Saint Anthony, a part of ''The Visitation with [[Saint Nicholas]] and Saint Anthony Abbot'' by [[Piero di Cosimo]], {{c.|lk=no|1480}}]]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, [[Monastery of Saint Anthony|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.<ref name="Butler" />

=== Father of Monks ===
[[File:Vitale_da_Bologna_(14e_eeuw)_-_Vier_verhalen_van_Antonius_van_Egypte_(1340)_-_Bologna_Pinacoteca_Nazionale_-_26-04-2012_9-22-59.jpg|thumb|261px|''Four tales on Anthony the Great'' by [[Vitale da Bologna]], {{Circa|1340}}, at the [[Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna]]]]

Anthony was not the first ascetic or hermit, but he may properly be called the "Father of Monasticism" in Christianity,{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://global.britannica.com|title=Britannica, Saint Anthony}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.coptic.net/synexarion/anthony.txt|title=Saint Anthony Father of the Monks |publisher=coptic.net}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Healy>{{CE1913 |inline=1 |last=Healy  |first=Patrick Joseph |wstitle=Macarius#Macarius the Egyptian |display=Macarius the Egyptian (or "Macarius the Elder") |volume=16}}</ref>

The fame of Anthony spread and reached [[Constantine I (emperor)|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.<ref name=crawley>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/antony.htm|title="Saint Anthony of Egypt", ''Lives of the Saints'', John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{CE1913 |inline=1 |last=Bacchus |first=Francis Joseph |wstitle=St. Paul the Hermit |volume=11}}</ref>

In 338, he left the desert temporarily to visit Alexandria to help refute the teachings of [[Arius]].<ref name="ButlerLives1991" />

=== 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 (material)|sheepskin]] cloak to [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] and the other sheepskin cloak to [[Serapion of Nitria|Serapion of Thmuis]], his disciple.<ref>Cross, F. L., ed. (1957) ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. Oxford U.P., p. 1242</ref> Anthony was interred, according to his instructions, in a grave next to his cell.<ref name=crawley/>

[[File:Michelangelo Buonarroti - The Torment of Saint Anthony - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|261px|''[[The Torment of Saint Anthony (Michelangelo)|The Torment of Saint Anthony]]'', copy by the young [[Michelangelo]] after [[The Temptation of St Anthony (Schongauer)|an engraving]] by [[Martin Schongauer]] {{Circa|1487|1489|lk=no}}. Oil and tempera on panel. One of many artistic depictions of Saint Anthony's trials in the desert.]]