St. Anthony

I've been reading a little about St. Anthony. He was something of a hermit, to the extent that he at one point sealed himself in a tomb in the desert to pray ... I fell sort of hermit-like myself, so I find him interesting.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a biography of St. Anthony, c. 360, which was very exciting in a spiritual warfare kind of way. While I can't say I believe in demons, the biography was found intriguing enough by others to inspire a novel by Gustave Flaubert ...



.. and also works of art by the likes of Salvador Dali and Hieronymous Bosch .

The tryptych by Bosch, The Temptation of St. Anthony, c. 1500 ...


- the right side


- the middle


- the left side

And The Temptation of St. Anthony, by Dali, 1945 ...



Here's a little of what Wikipedia says of him ...

Saint Anthony the Great (251 - 356) ... was an Egyptian Christian saint and the outstanding leader among the Desert Fathers, who were Christian monks in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries .... Anthony is notable for being one of the first ascetics to attempt living in the desert proper, completely cut off from civilization ....

According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art. After that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church.

After he recovered, he made a second effort and went back to the desert, ... Here he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some twenty years. According to Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Saint Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions. They appeared as if they were about to attack him or cut him into pieces. But the Saint would laugh at them scornfully and say, "If any of you have any authority over me, only one would have been sufficient to fight me." At his saying this, they disappeared as though in smoke, and God gave him the victory over the devils. While in the fort he only communicated with the outside world by a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words. Saint Anthony would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He did not allow anyone to enter his cell: whoever came to him, stood outside and listened to his advice.

Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away, or gone insane in his solitary confinement, but he emerged healthy, serene, and enlightened. Everyone was amazed he had been through these trials and emerged spiritually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Anthony began to spread and grow ...

The biography of St. Anthony, by St. Athanasius, can be read online here.