Saint Anthony

Anthony was born in Coma, in Egypt, on January 12, 251, to well-off Christian farmers. He was orphaned before he was twenty, with an estate to manage and a little sister to look after. One day he heard these words read aloud: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor.” He took them literally. He gave everything away, entrusted his sister to a community of women and left. Christian monasticism was born from that gesture. Anthony wasn’t the first to withdraw into the desert, but he was the one who gave a stable form to what many were doing: groups of monks gathered around a spiritual father, an *abba*. That’s why he is called the first of the abbots, and he has a string of nicknames that say it all — the Great, of Egypt, of the Desert, the Anchorite, and Saint Anthony of the Fire. His life was told by Athanasius of Alexandria, who knew him personally, in a book that was enormously successful throughout the Christian world and did a great deal to make monastic life known. The part that struck readers most — and painters, for centuries — is his struggle against the devil’s temptations. Saint Jerome also tells of his meeting with Paul of Thebes, even older than he was, and the episode of the raven that brought them a loaf of bread so they could eat. He died in the desert of the Thebaid on January 17, 356, past the age of a hundred. The Coptic Church celebrates him on January 31. The Smorfia gave him the number thirteen. If your name is Anthony, Antonella or Antoinette, today is your name day — even though many wait for June 13, which belongs to the other Anthony, the one from Padua.