St. Anthony Essay

The author of this document of S. Anthony’s story is written in greek by Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria (293-273)(p.21). Athanasius provided a hagiography of St. Anthony’s life and virtues. St. Anthony was a young male around his 15 or 20 years in age when this was documented by Athanasius. St. Anthony was most famous of the desert fathers. Also better known as “ St. Anthony the great”. Anthony was of egyptian race, and spent most of his life in solitude. St. Anthony’s parents were christians which he was brought up as an christian (p.21). He knew nothing other than his parents and the home which they had lived in as a child. One St. Anthony's parents passed away he soon removed himself from others and soon lived a life in the mountains of Pispir. St.

St. Anthony converted to the life of monastic living. St. Anthony lived an ascetic life and fighting many temptations of those the devil created for him. St. Anthony soon overcame those temptations because of him knowing of scripture. From the struggles St. Anthony endured, he had emerged as the sane and sensible father of christian monasticism. A message that can be gathered from the reading is Anthony seen the world entirely covered with snares that he came across and gave the church “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come follow me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven”(p.22) and the world witnessed a great amount of solitary asceticism, a personal mortification and prayer from him. The author is trying to get across that it takes our break with sin and totality of our commentitment with christ. Also the author is trying to use this document as a way to spread the concept of christian monasticism. “ The standard for acknowledging a saint continued to be martyrdom but now extended to include extreme self-deprivation, heroic resistance to temptation, and extraordinary virtue manifested especially in