One of the most revered Catholic and Orthodox saints is St. Anthony the Great. This ascetic founded hermit monasticism. In the article we will consider in detail his life, the image of St. Anthony in art and literature. Let's also remember the main monasteries and temples dedicated to this great ascetic.
Childhood of a Saint
First, let's turn to the life of Anthony the Great. The future saint was born in the land of Egypt in Coma near Heliopolis in 251 AD. e. His family was rich, his parents were of noble birth. They raised the boy in a strict Christian faith. He spent all his childhood at his parents' house. And when it came time to go to school to learn to read and be surrounded by peers, the future saint chose not to leave home.
From childhood, he was taught to visit God's temple, where he went with joy along with his father, mother and sister. Despitethat the family possessed enviable we alth, St. Anthony the Great was unpretentious and was content with little.
But when the boy turned 18, his parents passed away, leaving his younger sister in his care.
Call of God
Since then, Anthony has taken care of his sister and the household, continuing to attend church regularly and indulge in charitable reflections. On one of these days he, as usual, was heading to the temple. I thought about the holy apostles, who left all their property, all their former lives and followed Christ, as well as about other believers who acted like them.
When the young man crossed the threshold of the temple, he heard a voice that uttered a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and distribute to the poor. And you will have treasure in Heaven. And follow me. These words seemed to sound from the lips of the Lord God himself and were addressed to the future saint personally. They hit the young man in the heart and radically changed his subsequent life.
Returning home, Saint Anthony immediately followed the words he heard in the temple. He sold numerous property inherited from his parents, the fertile land of his lands. Part of the proceeds was distributed to the residents of the village. He left a part to his sister, who also had the right to inherit. He gave some to the poor and needy. However, he wondered what to do with the little sister, whom he could not just leave. And he went to the temple of the Lord to seek advice from God.
When he re-entered the church, he heard other words fromof the same Gospel, commanding him to rely only on the Providence of God and not worry about tomorrow, which "takes care of itself." Antony also decided that these words were meant for him. He donated to the poor neighbors what little property he had left. He gave his sister to the care of good Christian women from the local convent. And, finally, he left his home and city to live in solitude and indulge in tireless prayer for the glory of the Lord.
Founder of the hermitage
At first, St. Anthony the Great lived not far from the city with a Christian elder who was a hermit. The future saint tried to imitate his teacher in everything. In addition, he visited other elders living in seclusion and asked their advice on how best to lead a hermit life. Even then, Anthony was known for his spiritual exploits, and many called him “the friend of God.”
However, then he decided to go further and further away from people. He called the elder with whom he lived, but he refused. Then Anthony, the future founder of Christian monasticism, found a remote small cave in which he settled. A friend of his periodically brought him food. Then the saint went even further: he crossed the Nile and settled in a ruined military fortress. In stock he had bread for six months. Twice a year, his friends came to him, bringing some food and passing it to the reverend through a hole in the roof of the fortification.
It is hard to imagine how much the ascetic experienced during these years of hermitage. He was thirsty,from hunger, from the desert night cold and daytime heat. However, the most terrible was not physical deprivation - the most terrible, according to the saint, were spiritual temptations, longing for people, for the world. To this melancholy were added temptations from numerous demons, who did not give the saint peace. Antony watched as the demons appeared to him in the guise of black and terrible youths, then in the form of giant giants. I saw how the devil tortures and torments other people. The demons beat him half to death and mocked him in every possible way. Sometimes the Monk Anthony the Great was inclined to return to the people, it was so hard for him. But then a messenger of God appeared to him - an angel or even the Savior himself. One day Antony asked the Lord where he was when he was suffering and crying out to him. The Lord replied that he had been with him all the time, but was waiting for his feat.
Most of all Antony was hindered by his thoughts. Once, during a fierce battle with them, the saint called to the Lord and pointed out that his thoughts did not allow him to be saved. Suddenly he saw that someone, like two drops of water similar to him, worked tirelessly, then prayed and again set to work. After that, the Angel of the Lord appeared before Anthony, who ordered him to act exactly like his double - only then is salvation possible.
Twenty years have passed. Anthony's old friends finally recognized his habitat and found him to live nearby. For a long time they knocked on the door of his modest monastery, asking him to come out to them. Finally the saint appeared at the door. Friends were very surprised. They expected to see an aged, emaciated man. Buton the contrary, not a trace of deprivation was visible on the face of the monk, despite the fact that he lived in inhuman conditions. There was peace and quiet in his soul, and heaven was reflected on his face. Soon the elder became a spiritual mentor for many. In the mountains located around the desert, many monastic cloisters appeared. The desert revived: many began to live in it, pray, sing, work and serve people. The monk did not set any specific conditions for his disciples for monastic life. He was only worried about the need to strengthen piety in the souls of his spiritual children, God's prayer, detachment from earthly life, the need to teach them constant work for the glory of the Lord.
Hermit feat
However, despite the success of his students and the spiritual prosperity of the monasteries, the founder of the Christian hermitage did not find peace in this inevitable noise. He was looking for peace and solitude. A voice from heaven asked him where the saint wanted to run. And Antony answered: "To the upper Thebaid." However, the voice objected that the monk would not find peace either there or elsewhere. And he needs to go to the inner desert (that was the name of the territory located near the Red Sea). That's where St. Anthony the Great.
After three days, he found on his way a high mountain with clean springs and settled there. The saint built a small field to grow his own grain and bake bread. From time to time he visited his students. However, numerous admirers found this place of his solitude and often began to come to him forprayers, instructions, healings.
One day the Greek philosophers, who are in the eternal search for wisdom, came to visit St. Anthony. The saint asked why such wise people came to him, the foolish old man. To which the philosophers objected that, on the contrary, they consider him a wise and knowledgeable person. To this St. Anthony boldly answered them: “If you came to a fool, then your path was in vain, and you went in vain. If, as you say, I am a wise man, then you should imitate the one whom you call a wise man. After all, if I came to you in search of wisdom, I would imitate you. However, you came to me as a knowledgeable person - so become Christians like me. And the philosophers went back, marveling at the insight of the saint.
Meeting with Paul the Hermit
Thus Anthony dwelt in the desert for over seventy years. Gradually, the thought began to creep into his head that he was older than all other Christian hermits. The monk turned to the Lord with a prayer that he would remove this proud thought from him, and learned from the Savior that, in fact, one monk began to live as a hermit much earlier than himself. Antony went off in search of this hermit. After spending a whole day, he did not find anyone except the animals that lived in the desert. The next day I saw a she-wolf that ran to the stream to drink. Saint Anthony followed her and discovered a cave near this stream. When he approached her, the door was closed from the inside. And the hermit asked for half a day to open it, until finally an old man, gray as a harrier, came out to meet him. His name was PavelThebes, and this saint had lived in the wilderness for ninety years.
They greeted each other. And Paul asked what is the state of the human race now. He was pleased that Christianity had finally triumphed in Rome, but he was saddened by the appearance of the Arian heresy. During the conversation of the hermits, a raven flew up to them from the sky and laid bread in front of them. Paul joyfully exclaimed, “How merciful is the Lord! All these years, I received half of the bread from him, and for you, He sent us a whole bread!”.
The next day, Paul told Anthony that he would soon go to the Lord, and asked to bring a bishop's robe to cover his remains after death. St. Anthony hurried to his monastery in the deepest emotion and told his brothers only that he saw the prophet Elijah and Paul in paradise.
When the saint was returning to Paul, he noticed how he was ascending to heaven, surrounded by angels and apostles. Anthony was upset that the elder did not wait for his return. But, returning to his cave, he found him praying serenely on his knees. Anthony joined in his prayer and only a few hours later realized that Paul was really dead. And he buried the old man, washing his body. The grave was dug by lions from the desert with their sharp claws.
Antony himself died at the age of one hundred and six.
Relics of the saint
The relics of the monk were found only under Justinian in 544. Immediately after the discovery, they were transferred to Alexandria. When in the 7th century the Saracens conquered Egypt, the relics were delivered to Constantinople, and from there, already in 980, to Motes-Saint-Didier(now Saint-Antoine-l'Abbey) in France, where they are kept to this day.
Life of St. Anthony
The life and deeds of the great saint were described in detail in his life by Father Athanasius of Alexandria. It is worth saying that this is the first known monument of Orthodox hagiographic literature - hagiography. Also, this creation is considered one of the best works of Athanasius. John Chrysostom claimed that this life is a must-read for all faithful Christians.
In the work, St. Athanasius also talks about the appearance of St. Anthony, and that throughout his life he was not tempted by expensive food, managed little in clothes, and that his eyesight remained sharp until old age, and until death all his teeth were in place, only loosened in the gums - in the end the saint was over a hundred years old. In addition, he maintained he althy arms and legs until his very end. All people who knew the elder loved St. Anthony, marveled at his deeds and inspired by his spiritual feat. And they were also amazed at the he alth of the monk, which God preserved for him, despite all the hardships and hardships. All this, Saint Athanasius concludes, serves as evidence of the numerous virtues of Anthony the Great and the goodness of God.
The Russian saint Dmitry Rostovsky included this life in the list of the Four Menaia as an edifying and soul-beneficial reading.
The Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt
In the very place where a monastic community once formed around the saint, in the desert nearRed Sea - now stands the oldest Christian monastery in the world. Now this place belongs to the Coptic Church (by the way, the parents of St. Anthony and he himself come from just this people). About forty monks and twenty young novices live and pray there.
There are seven churches in the monastery, and only one of them was built on the site of an ancient chapel, which the monk himself once laid. Some of his ashes are kept here, on the right hand side of the altar.
Not far from the monastery is a place of pilgrimage for Christians - a cave where St. Anthony. Now there is a small chapel. A steep high ladder leads to it, and once a year, on the day of the memory of the saint, a traditional service is held in it. The rest of the time, at certain hours, you can meet a monk reading prayers.
Temple in Russia
In Russia, there are relatively few places of veneration of the saint - in Catholicism they pay much more attention to him. The most famous is the temple of Anthony the Great in Dzerzhinsk. Small in size, it was built in 2007-2009. A Sunday school is open at the church.
Why the saint is revered
As we see from the life of Anthony the Great, this saint accomplished many spiritual feats during his lifetime. For which he is revered in the Christian tradition. January 17 is considered the saint's memorial day.
His main merit for the Christian way of life, of course, was the foundation of the tradition of hermit monasticism. Several monks-hermits are still under the supervision of a single mentor. livenot far from each other, most often in small huts or caves (which are otherwise called sketes). There they fast, indulge in tireless prayer and work. For such hermits, St. Anthony's Memorial Day is considered a particularly important church holiday.
However, it is worth saying that even during the life of the elder, another type of Christian hermitage appeared - monasteries. The Monk Pachomius the Great is considered its founder.
St. Anthony was not a writer in the traditional church sense. However, among his spiritual heritage, statements and teachings, combined in collections, have come down to us. Dying, he urged his followers: "Always believe in Christ and breathe it." This saying of St. Anthony can be considered the motto of his whole life: after all, he never deviated from faith in the Lord.
To our time, 20 speeches of the venerable elder dedicated to Christian virtues, seven letters to the monastery monks, as well as the rules of life for them, have survived. They are often remembered on the day of the memory of Anthony the Great.
In the 5th century, a collection of his sayings first appeared. He advised to indulge in silence in the desert - after all, then a person becomes invulnerable to all temptations, except for sensuality. The saint also noted that if a person could not get along with people in the world, then he would not be able to cope with his loneliness. In his opinion, a person will not find salvation if he has not been tempted. The saint, in principle, pays much attention to temptations: he considers this a very important factor for salvation, and in one of his sayings he even advises you to rejoice in the fact that you are tempteddemons. The monk advised to avoid hatred and quarrels, to adhere to humility, which can cover all sins, not to grumble and not consider yourself wise. After all, pride brought the devil down to hell. In addition, one should be temperate in food and sleep. Thus, the saint described the ideal image of a monk, which he actually was.
The image of a saint in art
Among the many stories that abound in the biography of Anthony the Great, the motive of the saint's temptations is a favorite among artists. It stands out most clearly in European spiritual painting from the 15th century. We can see works devoted to this plot by such famous (mainly German and Dutch) masters as M. Schongauer, I. Bosch, A. Dürer and others. For example, the painting “The Torment of St. Anthony” by Michelangelo is considered one of the first artist's works. Other common stories include the meeting of Anthony and St. Paul, St. Anthony on the background of nature. The icons depicting the reverend are also varied.
G. Flaubert used the plot of the temptation of St. Anthony in the philosophical drama of the same name.
As for the main attributes of the iconography, among them there is a cross in the form of the letter T, bells of the Order of the Hospitallers, a pig and a lion, as well as flames.
Whose patron is
St. Anthony is considered the patron saint of numerous professions: horsemen, farmers, undertakers, butchers and many others. Numerous images of the saint are associated with this. If the Eastern Church honors him as the founderhermit monasticism, the West pays more attention to his gift of healing.
The Middle Ages were the peak of St. Anthony, it was then that the order of his name was formed. This place became a de facto medical center that specialized in the treatment of a disease called "Anthony's fire" (it is assumed that it was either gangrene or ergot poisoning). Recall that the day of veneration of the saint is January 17.
