Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great, Father of Monasticism

St. Anthony the Great, Father of monasticism, was born in Egypt in the year 251. At about the age of twenty, he heard in church the Gospel reading "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me" (Mt.19:21). Taking these words as meant for him directly, Anthony sold the property he received after the death of his parents, distributed the money to the poor, left his younger sister in the care of pious nuns, and left home to begin his ascetical life in a hut not far from his village.

St. Anthony endured terrible temptations from the devil. He prayed that the Lord would show him the path of salvation, and was granted a vision of a man who by turns alternately finished a prayer, and then began to work. This was an angel, which the Lord had sent to instruct His chosen one.

As St. Anthony increased the strictness of his asceticism, the demons increased their attacks. Once, while St. Anthony was living in solitude in a cemetary, demons pounced upon the saint and tried to kill him, inflicting serious wounds upon him. When Anthony's friend arrived the next day to bring him food, he thought Anthony dead and carried him back to the village for burial. However, at midnight St. Anthony regained consciousness and told his friend to carry him back to the tombs.

After ten years of such struggles, St. Anthony, with the blessing of his Elder, went into the Thebaid desert and spent twenty years in complete isolation (except for a friend who brought him bread twice a year) and in struggle with the demons, finally achieving perfect peace. Then his friends began to come to him seeking his guidance, and soon St. Anthony's cell was surrounded by several monasteries, with him as their guide.

The Lord granted St. Anthony the gift of wonderworking, and he would cast out demons and heal the sick by his prayers. He spent eighty-five years in the desert, and died peacefully in 356 at age 105. Before his death he left one of his monastic mantles to St. Athanasius the Great, and the other to St. Serapion of Thmuis.

The Life of St. Anthony was written by St Athanasius the Great. It is the first biography of a saint who was not a martyr, and is considered to be one of the finest of St Athanasius' writings. St. John Chrysostom recommended that this Life be read by every Christian.