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St. Anthony
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 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 LauraEine Laura (von griech.„Λαύρα, enge Gasse”) ist eine Art Einsiedlergemeinschaft, bei der die Mönche während der Wochentage jeweils für sich alleine in Höhlen lebten und nur am Wochenende zur Feier der „Göttlichen Liturgie”, zum Gebet, zum gemeinsamen Mahl und zum brüderlichen Beisammensein zusammenkommen.s, 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).
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