St. Anthony the Great

Saint Anthony the Great
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.