Today we commemorate St. Antony the Great, Abbot. St. Antony the Great is Br. Antony’s patron saint. Happy Name Day, Br. Antony!!!
THE LIFE OF ST. ANTONY THE GREAT
The life of Saint Antony (the authorship of which same is ascribed to Saint Athanasius) has the following items regarding him who is venerated as the first Abbot of monks. Antony as an Egyptian, the child of noble and Christian parents, whom he lost while yet very young. On one occasion he heard read in church this passage of the Gospel: “If you will be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor.” He straightway took these words as addressed to himself personally, and therefore distributed all his possessions to the poor. Since he was about to enter the field of battle against Satan, he first gave heed to the examples set by all those who were eminent for any grace, and strove to copy them. He was excelled by none in watchfulness and self-restraint, and continual study of the Holy Scriptures. He had such a loathing of hereticks and schismatics, specially Arians, that he would never go near them. He slept lying on the ground. He took nothing with his bread but salt, and drank only water. He never ate or drank before sunset, and often abstained from food altogether for two days at a time. Very often he passed whole nights in prayer. And being so valiant a soldier of God, he was attacked by the devil with various temptations. He betook himself to the deserts round about Egypt, where many disciples became monks under his direction. Day by day the attacks of the fiends became more violent, but day by day his strength grew greater to strive against them. At length he came to mock at their powerlessness, saying: “Satan is afraid of good men’s prayers and fasts, but above all, of their warm love of our Lord, and mere Sign of whose holy Cross is enough to put him to flight.” He became such an object of dread to the devils, that many persons tormented by them were delivered by calling on his name. Moreover, the fame of this holiness was so spread abroad that Constantine the Great and his sons wrote to him to commend themselves to his prayers. In the hundred and fiftieth year of his age, having roused up great numbers to follow his example, he passed to heaven, on January 17th, in the year 356.
THE COLLECT FOR ST. ANTONY THE GREAT
O God, by your Holy Spirit you enabled your servant Antony to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil: Give us grace, with pure hearts and minds, to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The is the monastery of St. Antony, the very place where he established the community of monks that succeeds to this day.
This is the cave, on the side of the mountain above the monastery, where St. Antony lived many years.
