Editing Anthony the Great (section)

=== 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" />