IN TODAY’S LIVES OF THE SAINTS AND MARYTRS THE SECOND OF THIS WEEK’S HERMITS

Winchester, VA – Considered the Father of Monasticism, St. Anthony of the Desert, or Anthony the Great as he is often referred, was born in 251, in Herakleopolis Magna in Egypt, to wealthy landowners. He, like his acquaintance Saint Paul the Hermit, was orphaned as a youth, at the age of 18. He was given charge of his younger sister, but inspired by Jesus’ counsel in the Gospel of Matthew to sell everything and give to the poor if you wish to be perfect, he did, in fact, sell everything, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins. Anthony lived in the desert, wore skins, slept on the ground, and ate bread which was brought to him, but only after sundown. In his biography of St. Anthony, St. Anthanasius relates that the desert hermit quite literally fought with the devil, to the point of being beaten and believed on the brink of death. Eventually a group of men who visited St. Anthony and decided to stay with him to be taught by him formed what we might call the first monastic community, however they lived in solitude, came together to worship and be taught, and then again returned to solitude.  Saint Anthony died at a ripe old age, like St. Paul the Hermit—he was 105. Saint Anthony the Great, pray for us!

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