AN'TONY, ST.. OF THEBES (251-356). The father of monastic asceticism: known as the Great. He was born about the year 251 A.D.. at Roma. near Horaklea. in Upper Egypt. his par ents were both wealthy and pious, and be stowed on him a religious education. Having, in obedience to what he believed to be a divine in junction, sold his possessions and distributed the proceeds among the poor. be withdrew into the wilderness, where he disciplined himself in all those austerities which have hallowed his mem ory in the Catholic Church and formed the model of the monastic life. When thirty years of age. however, desirous of obtaining a deeper repose than his situation afforded. he penetrated further into the desert and took up his abode in an old ruin on the top of a hill, where he spent twenty years in the most rigorous seclusion; but in 305 he was persuaded to leave this retreat by the prayers of munerons anchorites who wished to live under his direction. He now founded the monastery of Faymm which was at first only a group of separate and scattered cells near Mem phis and Arsinoe. but which, nevertheless, may he considered the origin of cenobite life. He declined. however. to preside over a monastery. The persecution of the Christians by Maximian. in 311 A.D., induced St. Antony to leave his cell and proceed to Alexandria to comfort the mar tyrs; but in the course of a year he returned to his solitude, which, however, he soon left and plunged yet deeper into the desert. At length
he found a lodgment on a hill. about a day's journey from the Red Sea : but his disciples. dis covering his retreat, so pressed him with their affectionate importunities that he ventured to accompany them back. After many pious ex hortations, he once more left them, and soon be came the mighty oracle of the whole valley of the Nile. In 335 the venerable hermit made a journey to Alexandria. at the request of Atha nasius. to dispute with the Arians. Ile had in terviews with Athanasius and other distinguished persons, but soon retired to his desert home, where he died. 356 A.D.
Athanasius states. in his Life of St. Antony, that the saint wore only a coarse shirt of hair, and never washed his body, which is more cred ible than the stories he relates of his encounters with the devil or his miracles. His whole con duct indicates the predominance of a glowing and yet gloomy fancy, and a disposition to lead a life of absolute solitude. Although the father of monaehism, St. Antony is not the author of any monastic "rules:" those which the monks of the Eastern schismatic sects attribute to him are the production of St. Basil. He is. perhaps, the most popular saint. in the Catholic Church. Accounts of his life and miracles are given in the Acta Sanotorunt of the Bollandists, under the date of the 17th of January, on which day his festival was kept.