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Anthony the Great

Saint Anthony the Great
StAnthony.jpg
A Coptic icon, showing, in the lower left,
St. Anthony with St. Paul the First Hermit
Venerable and God-bearing
Father of Monasticism
Born c. 251
Herakleopolis Magna, Egypt
Died 356
Mount Colzim, Egypt
Venerated in Coptic Orthodox Church
Assyrian Church of the East
Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Churches
Roman Catholic Church
Anglicanism
Major shrine Monastery of St. Anthony, Egypt
Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, France
Feast 17th of January (22 Tobi)
Attributes bell; pig; book; Tau cross Tau cross with bell pendant
Patronage Skin diseases, basket makers, brushmakers, gravediggers, Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, Rome

Saint Anthony or Antony (Greek: Ἀντώνιος, Antṓnios; Latin: Antonius, Coptic: Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓ ; c. 251–356) was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from by various epithets: Anthony the Great, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on January 17 among the Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Egyptian calendar used by the Coptic Church.

The biography of Anthony's life by Athanasius of Alexandria helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism, particularly in Western Europe via its Latin translations. He is often erroneously considered the first Christian monk, but as his biography and other sources make clear, there were many ascetics before him. Anthony was, however, the first to go into the wilderness (about AD 270), a geographical move that seems to have contributed to his renown. Accounts of Anthony enduring supernatural temptation during his sojourn in the Eastern Desert of Egypt inspired the often-repeated subject of the temptation of St. Anthony in Western art and literature.


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