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KOMA (Ancient city) EGYPT
St. Antonius, sometimes surnamed Abbas, because he is believed to have been the
founder of the monastic life among the early Christians, was born in A. D. 251,
at Coma, near Heracleia, in Middle Egypt. His earliest years were spent in seclusion,
and the Greek language, which then every person of education used to acquire,
remained unknown to him. He merely spoke and wrote the Egyptian language. At the
age of nineteen, after having lost both his parents, he distributed his large
property among his neighbours and the poor, and determined to live in solitary
seclusion in the neighbourhood of his birthplace. The struggle before he fully
overcame the desires of the flesh is said to have been immense; but at length
he succeeded, and the simple diet which he adopted, combined with manual labour,
strengthened his health so much, that he lived to the age of 105 years. In A.
D. 285 he withdrew to the mountains of eastern Egypt, where he took up his abode
in a decayed castle or tower. Here he spent twenty years in solitude, and in constant
struggles with the evil spirit. It was not till A. D. 305, that his friends prevailed
upon him to return to the world. He now began his active and public career. A
number of disciples gathered around him, and his preaching, together with the
many miraculous cures he was said to perform on the sick, spread his fame all
over Egypt. The number of persons anxious to learn from him and to follow his
mode of life increased every year. Of such persons he made two settlements, one
in the mountains of eastern Egypt, and another near the town of Arsinoe, and he
himself usually spent his time in one of these monasteries, if we may call them
so. From the accounts of St. Athanasius in his life of Antonius, it is clear that
most of the essential points of a monastic life were observed in these establishments.
During the persecution of the Christians in the reign of the emperor Maximian,
A. D. 311, Antonius, anxious to gain the palm of a martyr, went to Alexandria,
but all his efforts and his opposition to the commands of the government were
of no avail, and he was obliged to return uninjured to his solitude. As his peace
began to be more and more disturbed by the number of visitors, he withdrew further
east to a mountain which is called mount St. Antonius to this day; but he nevertheless
frequently visited the towns of Egypt, and formed an intimate friendship with
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. During the exile of the latter from Alexandria,
Antonius wrote several letters on his behalf to the emperor Constantine. The emperor
did not grant his request, but shewed great esteem for the Egyptian hermit, and
even invited him to Constantinople. Antonius, however, declined this invitation.
His attempts to use his authority against the Arians in Egypt were treated with
contempt by their leaders. After the restoration of Athanasius, Antonius at the
age of 104 years went to Alexandria to see his friend once more, and to exert
his last powers against the Arians. His journey thither resembled a triumphal
procession, every one wishing to catch a glimpse of the great Saint and to obtain
his blessing. After having wrought sundry miracles at Alexandria, he returned
to his mountains, where he died on the 17th of January, 356. At his express desire
his favourite disciples buried his body in the earth and kept the spot secret,
in order that his tomb might not be profaned by vulgar superstition. This request,
together with the sentiments expressed in his sermons, epistles, and sentences
still extant, shew that Antonius was far above the majority of religious enthusiasts
and fanatics of those times, and a more sensible man than he appears in the much
interpolated biography by St. Athanasius. We have twenty epistles which go by
the name of Antonius, but only seven of them are generally considered genuine.
About A. D. 800 they were translated from the Egyptian into Arabic, and from the
Arabic they were translated into Latin and published by Abraham Ecchellensis,
Paris, 1641. The same editor published in 1646, at Paris, an 8vo. volume containing
various sermons, exhortations, and sentences of Antonius.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Founder of Christian monasticism. The chief source of information on St. Anthony
is a Greek Life attributed to St. Athanasius, to be found in any edition of his
works. A note of the controversy concerning this Life is given at the end of this
article; here it will suffice to say that now it is received with practical unanimity
by scholars as a substantially historical record, and as a probably authentic
work of St. Athanasius. Valuable subsidiary information is supplied by secondary
sources: the "Apophthegmata", chiefly those collected under Anthony's name (at
the head of Cotelier's alphabetical collection, P.G. LXV, 7]); Cassian, especially
Coll. II; Palladius, "Historica Lausiaca", 3,4,21,22 (ed. Butler). All this matter
may probably be accepted as substantially authentic, whereas what is related concerning
St. Anthony in St. Jerome's Life of St. Paul the Hermit" cannot be used for historical
purposes.
Anthony was born at Coma, near Heracleopolis Magna in Fayum, about
the middle of the third century. He was the son of well-to-do parents, and on
their death, in his twentieth year, he inherited their possessions. He had a desire
to imitate the life of the Apostles and the early Christians, and one day, on
hearing in the church the Gospel words, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
all thou hast", he received them as spoken to himself, disposed of all his property
and goods, and devoted himself exclusively to religious exercises. Long before
this it had been usual for Christians to practice asceticism, abstain from marriage
and exercising themselves in self-denial, fasting, prayer, and works of piety;
but this they had done in the midst of their families, and without leaving house
or home. Later on, in Egypt. such ascetics lived in huts, in the outskirts of
the towns and villages, and this was the common practice about 270, when Anthony
withdrew from the world. He began his career by practising the ascetical life
in this fashion without leaving his native place. He used to visit the various
ascetics, study their lives, and try to learn from each of them the virtue in
which he seemed to excel. Then he took up his abode in one of the tombs, near
his native village, and there it was that the Life records those strange conflicts
with demons in the shape of wild beasts, who inflicted blows upon him, and sometimes
left him nearly dead. After fifteen years of this life, at the age of thirty-five,
Anthony determined to withdraw from the habitations of men and retire in absolute
solitude. He crossed the Nile, and on a mountain near the east bank, then called
Pispir, now Der el Memum, he found an old fort into which he shut himself, and
lived there for twenty years without seeing the face of man, food being thrown
to him over the wall. He was at times visited by pilgrims, whom he refused to
see; but gradually a number of would-be disciples established themselves in caves
and in huts around the mountain, Thus a colony of ascetics was formed, who begged
Anthony to come forth and be their guide in the spiritual life. At length, about
the year 305, he yielded to their importunities an emerged from his retreat, and,
to the surprise of all, he appeared to be as when he had gone in, not emaciated,
but vigorous in body and mind. For five or six years he devoted himself to the
instruction and organization of the great body of monks that had grown up around
him; but hen he once again withdrew into the inner desert that lay between the
Nile and the Red Sea, near the shore of which he fixed his abode on a mountain
where still stands the monastery that bears his name, Der Mar Antonios. Here he
spent the last forty-five years of his life, in a seclusion, not so strict as
Pispir, for he freely saw those who came to visit him, and he used to cross the
desert to Pispir with considerable frequency. The Life says that on two occasions
he went to Alexandria, once after he came forth from the fort at Pispir, to strengthen
the Christian martyrs in the persecution of 311, and once at the close of his
life (c. 350), to preach against the Arians. The Life says he dies at the age
of a hundred and five, and St. Jerome places his death in 356-357. All the chronology
is based on the hypothesis that this date and the figures in the Life are correct.
At his own request his grave was kept secret by the two disciples who buried him,
lest his body should become an object of reverence.
Of his writings, the most authentic formulation of his teaching is
without doubt that which is contained in the various sayings and discourses put
into his mouth in the Life, especially the long ascetic sermons (16-43) spoken
on his coming forth from the fort at Pispir. It is an instruction on the duties
of the spiritual life, in which the warfare with demons occupies the chief place.
Though probably not an actual discourse spoken on any single occasion, it can
hardly be a mere invention of the biographer, and doubtless reproduces St. Anthony's
actual doctrine, brought together and co-ordinated. It is likely that many of
the sayings attributed to him in the "Apophthegmata" really go back to him, and
the same may be said of the stories told of him in Cassian and Palladius. There
is a homogeneity about these records, and a certain dignity and spiritual elevation
that seem to mark them with the stamp of truth, and to justify the belief that
the picture they give us of St Anthony's personality, character, and teaching
is essentially authentic. A different verdict has to be passed on the writings
that go under his name, to be found in P.G., XL. The Sermons and twenty Epistles
from the Arabic are by common consent pronounced wholly spurious. St Jerome (De
Viris Ill., lxxxviii) knew seven epistles translated from the Coptic into Greek;
the Greek appears to be lost, but a Latin version exists (ibid.), and Coptic fragments
exist of three of these letters, agreeing closely with the Latin; they may be
authentic, but it would be premature to decide. Better is the position of a Greek
letter to Theodore, preserved in the "Epistola Ammonis ad Theophilum", sect. 20,
and said to be a translation of a Coptic original; there seems to be no sufficient
ground for doubting that it really was written by Anthony (see Butler, Lausiac
History of Palladius, Part I,223). The authorities are agreed that St Anthony
knew no Greek and spoke only Coptic. There exists a monastic Rule that bears St
Anthony's name, preserved in Latin and Arabic forms (P.G., XL, 1065). While it
cannot be received as having been actually composed by Anthony, it probably in
large measure goes back to him, being for the most part made up out of the utterances
attributed to him in the Life and the "Apophthegmata"; it contains, however, an
element derived from the spuria and also from the "Pachomian Rules". It was compiled
at an early date, and had a great vogue in Egypt the East. At this day it is the
rule followed by the Uniat Monks of Syria and Armenia, of whom the Maronites,
with sixty monasteries and 1,100 monks, are the most important; it is followed
also by the scanty remnants of Coptic monachism.
It will be proper to define St. Anthony's place, and to explain his
influence in the history of Christian monachism. He probably was not the first
Christian hermit; it is more reasonable to believe that, however little historical
St Jerome's "Vita Pauli" may be, some kernel o fact underlies the story (Butler,
op. cit., Pat I, 231,232), but Paul's existence was wholly unknown till long after
Anthony has become the recognized leader of Christian hermits. Nor was St Anthony
a great legislator and organizer of monks, like his younger contemporary Pachomius:
for, though Pachomius's first foundations were probably some ten or fifteen years
later than Anthony's coming forth from his retreat at Pispir, it cannot be shown
that Pachomius was directly influenced by Anthony, indeed his institute ran on
quite different lines. And yet it is abundantly evident that from the middle of
the fourth century throughout Egypt, as elsewhere, and among the Pachomian monks
themselves, St Anthony was looked upon as the founder and father of Christian
monachism. This great position was no doubt due to his commanding personality
and high character, qualities that stand out clearly in all the records of him
that have come down. The best study of his character is Newman's in the "Church
of the Fathers" (reprinted in "Historical Sketches"). The following is his estimate:
"His doctrine surely was pure and unimpeachable; and his temper is high and heavenly,
without cowardice, without gloom, without formality, without self-complacency.
Superstition is abject and crouching, it is full of thoughts of guilt; it distrusts
God, and dreads the powers of evil. Anthony at least had nothing of this, being
full of confidence, divine peace, cheerfulness, and valorousness, be he (as some
men may judge) ever so much an enthusiast" (op.cit., Anthony in Conflict). Full
of enthusiasm he was, but it did not make him fanatical or morose; his urbanity
and gentleness, his moderation and sense stand out in many of the stories related
of him. Abbot Moses in Cassian (Coll. II) says he had heard Anthony maintaining
that of all virtues discretion was the most essential for attaining perfection;
and the little known story of Eulogius and the Cripple, preserved in the Lausiac
History (xxi), illustrates the kind of advice and direction he gave to those who
sought his guidance.
The monasticism established under St Anthony's direct influence became
the norm in Northern Egypt, from Lycopolis (Asyut) to the Mediterranean. In contradistinction
to the fully coenobitical system, established by Pachomius in the South, it continued
to be of a semi-eremetical character, the monks living commonly in separate cells
or huts, and coming together only occasionally for church services; they were
left very much to their own devices, and the life they lived was not a community
life according to rule, as now understood (see Butler, op. cit., Part I, 233-238).
This was the form of monastic life in the deserts of Nitria and Scete, as portrayed
by Palladius and Cassian. Such groups of semi-independent hermitages were later
on called Lauras, and have always existed in the East alongside of the Basilian
monasteries; in the West St Anthony's monachism is in some measure represented
by the Carthusians. Such was St Anthony's life and character, and such his role
in Christian history. He is justly recognized as the father not only of monasticism,
strictly so called, but of the technical religious life in every shape and form.
Few names have exercised on the human race an influence more deep and lasting,
more widespread, or on the whole more beneficent.
It remains to say a word on the controversy carried on during the
present generation concerning St Anthony and the Life. In 1877 Weingarten denied
the Athanasian authorship and the historical character of the Life, which he pronounced
to be a mere romance; he held that up to 340 there were no Christian monks, and
that therefore the dates of the "real" Anthony had to be shifted nearly a century.
Some imitators in England went still further and questioned, even denied, that
St Anthony had ever existed. To anyone conversant with the literature of monastic
Egypt, the notion that the fictitious hero of a novel could ever have come to
occupy Anthony's position position in monastic history can appear nothing less
than a fantastic paradox. As a matter of fact these theories are abandoned on
all hands; the Life is received as certainly historical in substances, and as
probably by Athanasius, and the traditional account of monastic origins is reinstated
in its great outlines. The episode is now chiefly of interest as a curious example
of a theory that was broached and became the fashion, and then was completely
abandoned, all within a single generation. (on the controversy see Butler, op.cit.
Part I, 215-228, Part II, ix-xi).
E.C. Butler, ed.
Transcribed by: Robert Gordon
This text is cited Oct 2005 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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