Antony was born in Egypt of noble and Christian parents who left him an orphan at an early age. Having one day entered a Church, he heard these words of the Gospel being read: “If you will be perfect, go and sell all you have and give to the poor.” He took them as addressed to himself and thought it his duty to obey these words of Christ his Lord. Selling therefore his possessions, he distributed all the money among the poor. Being freed from these obstacles, he resolved on leading on Earth a heavenly life. But at his entrance on the perils of such a combat, he felt that besides the shield of faith with which he was armed, he must needs fortify himself with the other virtues, and so ardent was his desire to possess them that whoever he saw excelling in any virtue, him did he study to imitate.
Nothing, therefore, could exceed his continence and vigilance. He surpassed all in patience, meekness, mercy, humility, manual labour and the study of the Sacred Scriptures. So great was his aversion for the company of, or conversation with, heretics, especially the Arians, that he used to say that we ought not even to go near them. He lay on the ground when necessity obliged him to sleep. As to fasting, he practised it with so much fervour that his only nourishment was bread seasoned with salt, and he quenched his thirst with water. Neither did he take this his food and drink until sunset, and frequently abstained from it altogether for two successive days. He very frequently spent the whole night in prayer. Antony became so valiant a soldier of God that the enemy of mankind, ill-brooking such extraordinary virtue, attacked him with manifold temptations. But the Saint overcame them all by fasting and prayer. Neither did his victories over Satan make him heedless, for he knew how innumerable are the devil’s artifices for injuring souls.
Knowing this, he took himself into one of the largest deserts of Egypt, where such was his progress in Christian perfection that the wicked spirits whose attacks grew more furious as Antony’s resistance grew more resolute became the object of his contempt, so much so, indeed, that he would sometimes taunt them for their weakness. When encouraging his disciples to fight against the devil and teaching them the arms with which they would vanquish him, he used often to say to them: “ Believe me, Brethren, Satan dreads the watchings of holy men, and their prayers, and fasts, and voluntary poverty, and works of mercy, and humility, and, above all, their ardent love for Christ our Lord, at the mere sign of whose most holy Cross, he is disabled, and put to flight.” So formidable was he to the devils that many persons in Egypt who were possessed by them were delivered by invoking Antony’s name. So great, too, was his reputation for sanctity, that Constantine the Great and his Sons wrote to him, commending themselves to his prayers.
At length, having reached the hundred and fifth year of his age and having received a countless number into his institute, he called his monks together. And having instructed them how to regulate their lives according to Christian perfection, he, venerated both for the miracles he had wrought and for the holiness of his life, departed from this world to Heaven, on the sixteenth of the Calends of February (January 17).
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
The East and West unite today in honouring Saint Antony, the Father of Cenobites. The Monastic Life existed before his time, as we know from indisputable testimony. But he was the first Abbot because he was the first to bring monks under the permanent government of one Superior or Father. Antony began with seeking solely his own sanctification. He was known only as the wonderful Solitary against whom the wicked spirits waged an almost continued battle: but in the course of time men were attracted to him by his miracles and by the desire of their own perfection. This gave him disciples. He permitted them to cluster round his cell and monasteries thus began to be built in the desert. The age of the Martyrs was near its close. The persecution under Diocletian, which was to be the last, was over as Antony entered on the second half of his course, and God chose this time for organising a new force in the Church. The Monastic Life was brought to bear upon the Christian world. The Ascetics, as they were called, not even such of them as were consecrated — were not a sufficient element of power. Monasteries were built in every direction, in solitudes and in the very cities, and the Faithful had but to look at these communities living in the fervent and literal fulfilment of the counsels of Christ, and they felt themselves encouraged to obey the precepts.
The apostolic traditions of continual prayer and penance were perpetuated by the monastic system. It secured the study of the Sacred Scriptures and theology, and the Church herself would soon receive from these arsenals of intellect and piety her bravest defenders, her holiest Prelates and her most zealous Apostles. Yes, the Monastic Life was to be and give all this to the Christian world, for the example of Saint Antony had given her a bias to usefulness. If there ever were a monk to whom the charms of solitude and the sweetness of contemplation were dear, it was our Saint. And yet, they could not keep him in his desert when he could save souls by a few days spent in a noisy city. Thus we find him in the streets of Alexandria when the pagan persecution was at its height. He came to encourage the Christians in their martyrdom. Later on, when that still fiercer foe of Arianism was seducing the Faith of the people, we again meet the great Abbot in the same capital, this time, preaching to its inhabitants that the Word is consubstantial to the Father, proclaiming the Nicene faith, and keeping up the Catholics in orthodoxy and resolution. There is another incident in the life of Saint Antony which tells in the same direction, inasmuch as it shows how an intense interest in the Church must ever be where the Monastic Spirit is. We are alluding to our Saint’s affection for the great Saint Athanasius who, on his part, reverenced the Patriarch of the Desert, visited him, promoted the Monastic Life to the utmost of his power, used to say that he considered the great hope of the Church to be in the good discipline of nonasticism, and wrote the Life of his dear Saint Antony.
But, to whom is due the glory of the Monastic Institute with which the destinies of the Church were, from that time forward, to be so closely connected as that the period of her glory and power was to be when the monastic element flourished and the days of her affliction were to be those of its decay? Who was it that put into the heart of Antony and his disciples the love of that poor and unknown, yet ever productive, life? It is Jesus, the humble Babe of Bethlehem. To Him, then, wrapped in His swaddling clothes, and yet the omnipotent God, be all the glory!
*****
We unite, great Saint, with the universal Church in offering you the homage of our affectionate veneration, and in praising our Emmanuel for the gifts He bestowed on you. How sublime a life was yours, and how rich in fruit were your works! Verily, you are the Father of a great people and one of the most powerful auxiliaries of the Church of God. We beseech you, therefore, pray for the Monastic Order, that it may re-appear in all its ancient fervour, and pray for each member of the great Family. Fevers of the body have been often allayed by your intercession and we beg for a continuance of this your compassionate aid — but the fevers of our soul are more dangerous and we beg your pity and prayers that we may be delivered from them. Watch over us, in the temptations which the enemy is unceasingly putting in our way. Pray for us that we may be vigilant in the combat, prudent in avoiding dangerous occasions, courageous in the trial and humble in our victory.
The angel of darkness appeared to you in a visible shape, but he hides himself and his plots from us. Here again, we beg your prayers that we be not deceived by his craft. May the fear of God’s judgements and the thought of eternity penetrate into the depth of our souls. May prayer be our refuge in every necessity, and penance our safeguard against sin. But above all, pray that we may have that which you counselled above all —the love of Jesus — of that Jesus who, for love of us, deigned to be born into this world so that He might merit for us the graces with which we might triumph — of that Jesus who humbled Himself even so far as to suffer temptation that so He might show us how we were to resist and fight.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Langres, in the time of Marcus Aurelius, the saints Speusippus, Eleusippus and Meleusippus, born at one birth, who were crowned with martyrdom together with their grandmother Leonilla.
At Rome, the finding of the holy martyrs Diodorus, priest, Marian, deacon, and their companions. While they were commemorating the birthdays of the martyrs in a sand-pit, the entrance was closed by the persecutors, and the vault over them broken down, and they thus obtained the palm of martyrdom in the reign of Pope St. Stephen.
At Bourges, the demise of St. Sulpicius, surnamed Pius, whose life and precious death are adorned with glorious miracles.
At Rome, in the monastery of St. Andrew, the blessed monks Anthony, Merulus and John, of whom Pope St. Gregory speaks in his writings.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
