St. Anthony of the Desert, feast January 17
The Age of the Hermits
Introduction
For the majority of saints in Church history, prayer is always the mainspring of action. All their actions follow from their way and life of prayer. In St. Anthony of the Desert, we find a way of life and prayer that began a movement of Christians to the desert. And for the first time, we meet a saint who is an unmixed contemplative - one absorbed in pure prayer and contemplation (the stage of prayer considered to be the highest: after lectio, meditatio, and oratio). We discover in St. Anthony, a movement from the city in Egypt into the solitude of wide empty spaces in the desert, and occupying an abandoned fort (or castle in some translations). Christian art often depicts him always in combat against the Evil One - the devil. However, the world of the eighteenth century, does not believe in the devil, and have often treated St. Anthony in secular history as a fanatic who gives up the joys of life to get in return nothing but a dream. Now in the modern world, where some do not believe in the devil, there is a gradual perception of some social significance to the life of St. Anthony and his monks (he also founded a community). Modern scholars know that most men stood in the mainstream of history. They got involved in the world, and have succeeded in diverting its direction. But there is a difference with St. Anthony Abbot and his followers. They stood outside the mainstream of history, uninvolved, and not even trying to influence the world. What is surprising is that with their noninvolvement, they still were able to unexpectedly divert civilization powerfully! For with St. Anthony and the movement to the desert that was increased after him, the institution of monasteries and religious life slowly and gradually evolved into a stable system in the history of spirituality in the Catholic Church.
The First Half-Century
Anthony's conversion
The Life of St. Anthony was first written by Athanasius the Bishop, that great saint who twice joined St. Anthony in his desert exile, and returned to Alexandria strengthened to fight against the Arian heresy. According to Athanasius and other sources who wrote his biography, St. Anthony was born in Egypt of Christian parents in the year 251 A.D. - the same year Origen the theologian died. St. Anthony passed most of his youth in a period of peace for the Church. There was persecution in the Church in his early childhood and again in his middle years, but not as he was growing up. Literacy was not universal in the Roman Empire and it seems unlikely that St. Anthony went to school. St. Anthony's parents passed away when he was only eighteen or twenty, leaving him the guardian of an only sister. St. Athanasius, who also is his biographer, describes how Anthony walked one day to church, with his mind on the calling of the Apostles and the way Christians had all things in common. As Anthony entered the Church, he heard this text of the gospel being read: "If thou wilt be perfect sell all thou hast and give to the poor and come, follow Me." From then on, Anthony gave away to the village the three hundred acres of fertile land that were his, sold all he had, and gave most of it to the poor, keeping back only a little for his sister. On his next visit to the Church, he heard the words, "Be not solicitous for the morrow". So, parting with the rest of his inheritance and patrimony, he put his sister in a convent to be educated. Anthony then started to practice the ascetic life in front of his own house, "for monasteries were not yet numerous in Egypt, nor did any monk yet know the wide desert". However, there were already men living a life of solitude, prayer, labour with their hands, and almsgiving in their own neighborhoods. Anthony visited them and in all humility studied the special excellence of each: the graciousness of one, the intensely prayerfulness of another, how others observed long vigils, and still others the eager love of reading, but in all he saw the reverent love for Christ and mutual affection for one another.
The temptations from the devil
As St. Anthony tried to carry out in his own life all that he had seen and learned from others, he worked steadily and prayed much. Of what he read, he forgot none of it, and his memory later served him in place of books. He always kept his mind steadily away from his inheritance and would not think about his relatives. As the devil saw Anthony pursuing this path to Christ and holiness, the devil soon began in his turn to advance upon St. Anthony. The first temptation of the devil was to tempt Anthony away from the ascetic life by bringing before him thoughts of his property, of anxiety about his sister, the companionship of his kind, greed for money and fame, the pleasure of rich and varied foods and the other delights of a luxurious life. The devil pressed on Anthony, disturbing him night and day. Anthony fought the devil by driving him away by prayer; by fortifying his body with faith and fastings. By these means Anthony was able to put out the flame of temptation. As Anthony won in the battles against the devil, all the more the devil re-furbished his weapons and prepared new attacks. Anthony however watched and prayed longer, often through the whole night. After some years spent in this fashion, Anthony, preparing for the supreme combat with Satan, left the village and went away to the tombs which lay at some distance. At the tombs, he asked a close friend to bring him bread at intervals, shut himself in and stayed there alone. And his prayer was always with a mighty shout, "Here am I, Anthony. I am not going to run away from your blows, for even if you beat me again nothing can separate me from the love of Christ."
Intensifying the severity of his life
After these first combats with Satan, Anthony intensified the severity of his life. He intensified his solitude, deciding to make his way into the desert. Athanasius describes to us the spot chosen by Anthony in which he dwelt for the next twenty years: "He found beyond the river a fort long unused and full of reptiles - he crossed over to it and there dwelt. The reptiles left at once, as if someone were chasing them. He closed up the entrance and laid in bread for six months (the Thebans of Egypt do this and the bread will keep unspoilt for a full year). There was water inside. Anthony went down as though into a shrine and there lived alone. He never went out nor would he see those who came to see him. There for a long time he worked at asceticism, twice a year only receiving bread that was lowered to him from above."
Many came to seek his counsel
Many came seeking Anthony in his solitude. Monasteries soon were growing up in the desert. The monks required the help of Anthony, and his friends could no longer be avoided. After all, twenty years is quite a period. It is a small wonder the world became impatient for the sight of this solitary. He had shut himself up a young man of thirty-five; he was now fifty-five years old. Few could have guessed he had another half-century of life before him. As his friends smashed the doors, Anthony came forth, like one initiated into the Mysteries of Christ, and breathed upon by the Godhead, coming from a shrine. As he was seen for the first time by those who sought him, they marvelled at how unchanged he was in body: neither grown fat through want of exercise, nor thin and gaunt from fasting and battling with devils. He looked exactly the same as before his retirement to the abandoned fort.
The Second Half-Century
Persecution upon the Church
After St. Anthony came forth from his solitude, persecution broke once more upon the Church and Anthony was seized with a great longing for martyrdom. Though he did not think it was right for him, he ministered instead to the confessors (those who suffer because of persecution) in the mines and the prisons. He accompanied those condemned to martyrdom and upheld them until the end. Together with other monks, they made their presence in the courts, and burned with divine courage in support of those to be martyred. As Roman law would think it not worth while to fill the prisons with these "ragged, starving fanatic monks", St. Anthony returned reluctantly to his desert. But he took back with him many who had, by seeing and hearing him, become inspired with the wish to lead the same life as his.
Dwelling in a monastery
The next period of St. Anthony's life was spent more in the eyes of the world. He dwelt in a monastery, visited other monasteries and was himself visited by great numbers. He was "guide and father" to many other monks and influenced many to take up a solitary life.
Longed for a deeper solitude
Anthony was longing for a deeper solitude. So he finally decided to go further into the desert, where he might once more be alone. Through the help of some Saracens (nomad Arabs) he found a very small patch of land that could be tilled. So he dug and sowed it, "having more than enough water for its cultivation". Later he added a few vegetables wherewith to refresh any visitors that might arrive weary with the journey. St. Anthony was ninety years old when there came the meeting so celebrated in medieval art, between him and the first hermit, Paul. St. Athanasius has no account of this meeting. It is St. Jerome who has an account of it but he wrote it in poetic style. What is piously told of the meeting is that a crow had settled on a branch of a tree, and softly flying down, deposited a whole loaf before the two hermits. Paul exclaimed how the Lord had a hand in this meeting since he always received a half loaf everyday of his solitary years.
A ripe old age and death
St. Anthony lived to the age of 105, seeing under the Emperor Constantine the beginnings of Arianism. It was finally in his old age that he won his coveted crown of martyrdom. The Arian Constantius had sent an officer to set out towards where St. Anthony was dwelling. A horse however turned on St. Anthony and tore up his thigh. When he knew he was dying, he left his monastery and returned to the stronghold in the inner desert where two monks lived with him. He bade them farewell and told them: "With every breath you breathe draw in Christ...And now God be with you, my children; for Anthony departs and is with you no more."
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