  Saint Anthony Abbot He
was born at Koman, near Memphis, Upper Egypt, of well-to-do Christian
parents; he distributed their inheritance on their death about 269,
placed his sister in a convent, and in 272 became a hermit in a tomb in
a cemetery near Koman. He lived a life of prayer, penance, and the
strictest austerity, ate only bread and water once a day, and engaged
in struggles with the devil and temptations that are legendary. About
285, in quest of greater solitude, he left this hermitage and took up
residence in an old fort atop Mount Pispir (now Der el Memun), living
in complete solitude and seeing no one, eating only what was thrown to
him over the wall of the fort. After twenty years, in 305, he emerged
to organize at Fayum the colony of ascetics that had grown around his
retreat into a loosely organized monastery with a rule, though each
monk lived in solitude except for worship. It was the first Christian
monastery. In 311, at the height of Emperor Maximin's persecution, he
went to Alexandria to give encouragement to the Christians being
persecuted there. He returned when the persecution subsided and
organized another monastery at Pispir but again retired, this time to
Mount Kolzim near the Red Sea, with a disciple, Macarius. About 355,
Anthony again went Alexandria to join those combating Arianism, working
with his close friend St. Athanasius, whose Vita Antonii is the chief source of
information about Anthony. On his return, he retired to a cave on Mount
Kolzim, where he received visitors and dispensed advice until his death
there on January 17. Anthony was the founder of Christian monasticism
and was famous all over the civilized world for his holiness,
asceticism, and wisdom, and was consulted by people from all walks
oflife, from Emperor Constantine to the humblest monk.
Image by the Master of the Observance, after 1425.
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