Dates

• Existence: approximately 250 - 355 or 356

Biographical note

Born at Coma in Upper Egypt, at the age of twenty Anthony gave away his property, which was considerable, to the poor and lived as a hermit. About the year 305 he established a community at Fayum and another shortly after at Pispir. He was the first to establish the monastic life, by gathering together large groups of hermits into loose communities. He was a personal friend of Saint Athanasius and his supporter against the Arians. Antony died in his hermitage on Mt. Kolzim, near the Red Sea.

In art he is frequently shown with a T-shaped cross and a pig. The latter, perhaps originally the symbol of evil, became associated with a privilege of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony founded in the 17th century. The illness known as "Saint Anthony's fire" was apparently an epidemic form of erysipelas against which the saint's intercession was invoked.

(paraphrased from The Book of Saints : A Dictionary of Persons Canonized or Beatified by the Catholic Church. 5th edition. New York: Crowell, 1966.)

Alternate names

Antony, Anthony the Great, Anthony Abbot, Antonius Magnus