Saint Anthony of Egypt summary

Discover the life of Saint Anthony of Egypt, founder of Christian monasticism

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Saint Anthony of Egypt, (born 251, Koma, near al-Minyā, Heptanomis, Egypt—died Jan. 17?, 356, Dayr Mārī Antonios hermitage, near the Red Sea; feast day January 17), Egyptian hermit considered the founder of organized Christian monasticism. He began his practice of asceticism at age 20 and lived in solitude on Mount Pispir from 286 to 305. He emerged from his retreat to organize the monastic life of the hermits who had settled nearby. When the Edict of Milan (313) ended the persecution of Christians, Anthony moved to the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea. His monastic rule was compiled from writings and discourses attributed to him in Athanasius’s Life of St. Anthony and the Apophthegmata patrum and was still observed in the 20th century by Coptic and Armenian monks. The hellish temptations he endured as a hermit became a popular subject for artists.

St. Athanasius Summary

St. Athanasius ; feast day May 2) was a theologian, ecclesiastical statesman, and Egyptian national leader. He was the chief defender of Christian orthodoxy in the 4th-century battle against Arianism, the heresy that the Son of God was a creature of like, but not of the same, substance as God the

saint Summary

Saint, holy person, believed to have a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities. The phenomenon is widespread in the religions of the world, both ancient and contemporary. Various types of religious personages have been recognized as saints,

monasticism Summary

Monasticism, an institutionalized religious practice or movement whose members attempt to live by a rule that requires works that go beyond those of either the laity or the ordinary spiritual leaders of their religions. Commonly celibate and universally ascetic, the monastic individual separates