Saint Anthony the Great
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Saint Anthony the Great is one of the Venerable and God-bearing fathers of the Orthodox Church, born in Egypt around 254 AD. Venerable Anthony was the leader among the desert fathers and the founder of eremitic/idiorhythmic monasticism. His memory is celebrated on January 30 i.e. January 17 as per old Julian Calendar.
Hagiography
Saint Anthony the Great was born in Egypt around 254 AD to noble and wealthy parents who raised him in the Christian faith. At the age of eighteen he was left without his parents, alone with his sister, whom he continued to care for. On one occasion, when he was on the way to the church he thought about the holy apostles, how they left everything, in order to follow the Lord. When he entered the temple, he heard the words of the gospel readings: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and distribute them to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven, and follow me” (Matt. 19:21). These words overwhelmed Anthony, as if God had spoken to him personally. Soon after Anthony renounced (forsook) his inheritance from his parents in favour of the poor residents of his village, but he was in two minds as to where to leave his sister. Being troubled with that thought, he entered the temple on another occasion and heard the Saviour’s words again, as if they were directed to him: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34). Anthony entrusted his sister to Christian virgins whom he knew, and left the city and home in order to live alone and serve the Lord only.
The departure of the Venerable Anthony from the world was not sudden, but gradual. At first he stayed near the city, with a pious old man, who lived alone and he tried to imitate him in everything. He also visited other hermits living on the outskirts of cities and benefited from their counsel. Even then, he became so well-known because of his asceticism that he was called a “Friend of God.” Then he decided to go further into the wilderness. He asked the Elder to go with him, but the Elder declined the offer. After he farewelled and departed from the Elder, he settled in a distant cave. One of his friends occasionally brought him food. In the end, Saint Anthony completely moved away from the settlements, crossed the Nile River and settled in the ruins of a military fortress. He took bread with him for six months and then received it from his friends only twice a year, through an open roof.
It is inconceivable how many temptations and struggles this great ascetic endured. He suffered from hunger and thirst, from cold and heat. But the most terrible temptation of the hermit, in the words of Saint Anthony himself – is in the heart: The heart is longing for the world and the thoughts are coming one after the other (they are rippling). All this was joined by the lures and horrors of the demons. Sometimes the strong ascetic was exhausted, ready to fall into despair (desolation). On this occasions, either the Lord Himself appeared to him or He would have sent an angel to support him (lift him up). “Where were You, good Jesus?” Why did You not come in the beginning to stop my suffering? ” Cried Anthony, when the Lord would have appear to him after some severe temptation (tribulations). “I was here,” the Lord told him, “and I waited to see your struggle (effort, asceticism)”.
Once, in the midst of a dreadful struggle with his (the) thoughts, Anthony exclaimed: “Lord, I want to be saved, but my (the) thoughts would not allow me.” Suddenly he saw; someone – similar to himself – he sat and he worked, then he started praying, then he sat down and again and worked… “Do this and you will be saved,” the angel of the Lord told him.
Anthony had been living in solitude for twenty years, when some of his friends found out about his whereabouts and came to live next to him. They knocked on the door for a long time and begged him to come out of his voluntary imprisonment (reclusion); in the end they decided to break the door, but Anthony opened it and came outside. They marvelled, seeing no sign of exhaustion, despite the fact that he had subjected himself to the greatest deprivations. The heavenly world reigned in his soul and was reflected in his face. Being composed, reserved, equally kind to all, the Elder, soon became the spiritual father and teacher to many. The desert came to life: settlements of monks appeared in the surrounding mountains; many people sang, read, fasted, prayed, toiled, and served the poor. Saint Anthony did not give his disciples any specific rules for monastic life. He strived only to enroot in them a pious disposition, he encouraged them to surrender to the will of God, to pray, to renounce everything earthly, to constant toil.
But Saint Anthony in the desert was getting weary of the large crowd of people and wanted a new seclusion. “Where do you want to go?” – he heard a voice from the sky, when a boat was waiting for him on the banks of the Nile river in order to depart from the people. “In upper Tivaida,” replied Anthony. But the same voice told him: “Even if you sail upstream – to Tivaida, or downstream – to Bukolia, you will have no peace neither there nor here. Go to the inner desert.” That was the name of the desert that lay on the shores of the Red Sea. Anthony went there, following the passing Saracens.
After a three-day journey, he found a wild high mountain with a spring of water and a few palm trees in the valley. He settled on that mountain. Here he was cultivating a small field, so that no one had to come to him to bring him bread. He occasionally visited the brothers (monks). He used a Camel to carry bread and water in order to save his energy during those difficult journeys in the desert.
The admirers of St. Anthony discovered even his final habitation. Many began to come to him, asking for his prayers and teachings. They would bring sick people to him and he prayed for them and healed them.
Saint Anthony had lived in the desert for seventy years. Against his will, the thought of pride began to attack him, that here he is the oldest. He asked God to remove that thought from him and he received a revelation that a hermit had settled in the wilderness long before him and served the Lord more than he did. Antony got up early in the morning and went to look for the ascetic whom the world did not know. He spent the whole day and did not meet anyone except the beasts of the desert. An endless, unseen wilderness stretched out before him, but he did not lose hope. Early in the morning he left again. A wolf ran before his eyes, and went to a stream. Saint Anthony approached that stream and saw a cave next to it. At the sound of his footsteps, the cave door slammed shut. Saint Anthony called at the door of the unknown ascetic until noon and begged for him to appear. Finally, the door opened and a profound old man came out in front of him, he was completely grey. This was Saint Paul (Pavel) of Tiberias. He had lived in the desert for about ninety years.
After the brotherly kiss, Paul asked Anthony: “What is the condition of the human race? What is the government like in the world? Are there any other idolaters? ” The end of persecution and the victory of Christianity in the Roman Empire were good news for him, but the emergence of Arianism was bitter. While the Elders were talking, a raven landed and left bread. “The Lord is abundant and merciful,” cried Paul. “For how many years have I received half a loaf of bread every day, and now, because of your arrival, He has sent a whole loaf of bread.”
The next morning Paul (Pavel) revealed to Anthony that he was about to leave this world; so he asked Anthony to bring the mantle of Bishop Athanasius, in order to wrap his body in it. Anthony hurried to fulfil the wish of the Holy Elder. He returned to his desert very excited, and when asked by the monk brothers, he could only say: “I, the sinner, even considered myself a monk! I saw Elijah, I saw John, I saw Paul (Pavel) in heaven”. Returning to St. Paul (Pavel), he saw him ascending into heaven in the midst of an assembly of angels, prophets, and apostles.
“Why didn’t you wait for me, Pavel (Paul)?” Exclaimed Anthony. “I found out about you so late and you leave so early!” However, when he entered Paul’s cave, he found him in silence, kneeling, motionless. Anthony also knelt down and began to pray. It was not until a few hours of prayer that he became convinced that Paul was not moving because he was dead. He lavishly washed his body and wrapped it in the mantle of Saint Athanasius. Suddenly two lions appeared and dug a deep enough grave with their claws, where Anthony buried this Holy Ascetic.
Venerable Anthony passed away in old age (at the age of 106, in the year 356) and for his deeds he deserved the title: “Great.”
Fr. Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
30 / 01 / 2022
