St. Antony the Great The Founder of Monasticism
By the late Reverend Father Menasseh Youhanna
(Extract from "The History of the Coptic Church," Third Century, Part 2)
The biographer of this righteous Father was Pope St. Athanasius the Apostolic, the twentieth Patriarch of Alexandria. He was very proud for having known St. Antony the Great since his youth and that he had given him to drink several times. He briefly said, "St. Antony was born in the year 251 AD in the city of Koma (A city located near the present Beni Suef and the old city of Heraclea. It was a renowned city in Upper Egypt), of Christian parents who were rich in wealth and virtue. They raised him on the principles of the religion and piety and he grew up in peace and wealth, loving solitude and seclusion, quite content with his life. Although his parents did not enroll him in any of the schools, they educated with their own knowledge. The eloquent writings of St. Antony the Great show his ability and witness to his proficiency."
He lost his parents when he was eighteen years old, so he had to care for his young sister and manage his large properties from the income of which he largely spent on the poor and destitute. The holy thoughts had a strong hold on him and he greatly admired the nobleness of the Apostles who had left everything and enrolled for the service of the Word, and how, through them, every believer was convinced to sell his properties and put their price at their feet.
One day as he went to Church as usual with his sister, these thoughts were on his mind. During the reading of the Gospel, he heard Christ the Lord say to one of the rich Jewish youth, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me" (Mathew 19:21). As soon as he heard these words, he counted it as a Divine voice calling him from heaven, so he submitted to the advice and decided to follow it.
When he returned home he started to plan according to his decision; so he gave his sister her share and took her to the home of the virgins which had spread in his days, and recommended her to their president, so that she cares for her as her daughter. Then he started to sell all his possessions and distributed the wealth to the poor until he had nothing left. He lived from the work of his hands, by making baskets and mats to cover his daily needs. He then trained his body to grow in virtue and live in sanctity and piety.
Monasteries were not known at that time and those who sought solitude tried with all their might to leave the world and keep away from the people, so they dwelled in caves at some distance from the cities and the villages and there they lived in isolation to worship. St. Antony met with some of those people, he used to pass by them and he learned the virtues from them. He was like a bee collecting the nectar from different flowers, so he learned the virtue of patience from one, humility from another, silence, and obedience from others until he finally worshiped like them. He chose an elder from among them, to be his teacher, and his good memory helped him to memorize a chapter from the Holy Gospel just by reading it once.
This made the ascetics admire him and they believed he had a special power, so they appreciated and respected him, and said to him, "Come O beloved of God."
Satan did not like to see such a young man holding on to sanctity, so he gathered his hosts against him and planned to attack him through evil thoughts. Sometimes, he made him regret having distributed his heritage by telling him that he could have sold it, used it well, and still lived by pleasing God. He sometimes led him to regret abandoning it and leaving his only sister without protection in the world. At other times, he showed him the difficulties on the path he was following. Above all he filled his imagination with ghosts and beautiful images to lead him to corruption in the hope of overcoming his heart and defeating him.
However, St. Antony the Great armed himself against these attacks with the armor of God Almighty and he repeated in his mind the splendor of the heavenly Paradise and the painful agony of hell. He endeavored to restrain and humiliate his body; he fasted for a day and a night and sometimes for three days, he wore sackcloth and layed on the ground or on a mat. When Satan failed in making him fall into the path of the love of the world, he took another road by attempting to test him in pride and self complacency, by suggesting to him that he was the most holy and the most saintly of the people. He did not allow these evil thoughts to continue assailing his mind but he immediately drove them away as soon as they started their attack, and thus he got rid of the temptation before it took hold of him.
One day, as he was walking, he stepped on some old Egyptian treasures which were covered with dust and sand. At first, he thought they were imaginary images of gold and precious stones presented to him by Satan, but upon checking them, he realized that Satan wanted to test him by facilitating his return to the world, so he fled away from them and decided not to pass through this area again.
He then went to one of the cemeteries with the ancient people had built for suitable living accommodations; it was located near Maimoun (a town on the bank of the River Nile in the governorate of Beni Suef, where the Monastery of St. Antony is located). From there, he sent the baskets he made with one of his friends to be sold and he brought him back the essentials for his daily needs such as bread, salt, and water. It was said that he lived his whole life without eating meat or drinking wine.
At that time, the Saint was 35 years old, and he decided to go to the wilderness and wanted to take with him his old counselor. When he told him about this matter, he apologized regarding his old age, so he left him and he went to the desert, East of the Nile, and went deeper into the wilderness, not knowing where to lay his staff until he found an old castle that had been beautifully built by the hands of the kings of Egypt, the Pharaohs in ancient times in the period when the enemies attacked the Egyptian frontier and made it a military base. So the Saint repaired for himself a place and arranged it to the best of his ability, and he had with him sufficient provisions for six months. He was very pleased with this solitude, far from the world, and he liked this living accommodation.
The news of his sanctity had spread everywhere and the people went to him, some to listen to his teachings, others to obtain healing from their infirmities. He did not want to leave his castle, but they continued to ask for him and he abstained until they almost broke the door. Because of their strong request, he sometimes went out to them, to pray for the sick, and deliver homilies to those who sought guidance and were eager to hear his spiritual counsel. Many became his disciples; he accepted them and set regulations for them. In the year 305 AD, he established hundreds of them around his castle, but for twenty years, he rarely came out to them. Finally, he had to come out and appear before those who wanted to follow his path.
The Saint was 55 years old when the area around him was filled with a large number of those who wanted to live in isolation; some were rich and others were poor, and within a short time, Monasteries were established near Memphis, Arsinoe, Babel, and Aphrodite, and in many other places, and they were filled with Monks who lived under the supervision and disposal of St. Antony the Great, who then moved from one place to another guiding and preaching.
In his counsels he said to them, You must decide in your minds, everyone of you, that, yourself, newly started everyday, so that you do not become lazy and negligent; for the human being can find grace anywhere as long as he is attached to God in his heart, and the devils greatly fear the prayers, the fasts, the vigils, and abstinence, and also those who disdains the world. The choice of poverty, the breaking of the violence of anger are virtues that annihilate the head of Satan, and the weapons of our fight against our enemies are living faith and pure behavior. The one who worships God and abandons the world, who leaves everything even the glory and the treasures of kings must consider all these as nothing in comparison with heaven, that what he is leaving now he would have to leave shortly, because no one is eternal on earth and that when the human being dies he cannot take it away with him, therefore it is no big deal. The faithful servant, when ordered by his master to do something is diligent in his work regardless of his previous services; thus, the man who worships God does not look at what he has done but he attends to what he should still do for his Lord, however, he is not rewarded and does not receive the crown in the beginning, but at the end that is good. Acquiring virtue is not a difficult matter as some people believe, but we must totally rely upon our Lord Jesus Christ, for Satan cannot harm us unless we submit our souls to him."
He also said to his Monks, "Good behavior for acquiring virtues is better than performing miracles. The human being can be easily overcome Satan if he worships God with all his heart, with inner spiritual joy, and constantly have God in his mind because this light tears the darkness and quickly removes the temptations of the enemy. What would help us in this is to look at the lives of the Saints and follow their path for it leads us to emulating them."
St. Antony the Great continued to live among his Monks like an earthly Angel, by his own life, his holiness and by his leadership making them love virtue, until the year 311 AD. When he heard about the persecutions lead by Maximinus Caesar, he started sending his Monks to Alexandrian port, and he visited the prisons there and preached to the prisoners, making them long for martyrdom for the sake of their Holy Redeemer. He participated with them in the hymns and prayers and thus transformed their dark prison into a desirable place and he completed his service among them by clarifying how the world is transient with no glory. He concentrated on those who were sentenced to hard labor, and with his spiritual words he eased their pain.
He went to the courts boldly and attended the sessions; he defended the Christians with zeal and refuted the accusations of their enemies. As the goal of the persecution at that time was not to annihilate the Christians but to make them deny their Savior, he asked to meet privately with the accused to strengthen their faith and describe to them the eternal happiness prepared for all those who are patient over the tribulations.
When the governor sponsoring the persecution heard that the Monks had a hand in the encouragement of the Christians for accepting a horrible death, he ordered that they be forbidden from going to the courts. However, St. Antony the Great was determined to follow his plan, even if this lead to his martyrdom. So he put on a white robe and went up a mound near which the governor intended to pass, and asked the Lord with fervor to prepare him to obtain the crown of martyrdom. When the governor saw him, he admired his courage and looked at him with respect. From that time the persecutions diminished and the Saint returned to his Monastery to resume his intense and active worship as though he had never been worshipping before.
He liked solitude because he meditated on the beauty and the greatness of the Divine presence, and he was accustomed to spend the whole night in prayer, on his knees and motionless. He started to pray as the sun set behind him and when it rose in the morning before him, he complained saying, "O sun, why do you blind with your light the Divine rays of light?"
Due to his extreme abstinence, his body had become so thin that it seemed not made of flesh and bones; however, he was sociable, meek, his words and face showed brightness and cheerfulness, and his condition did not change with the changes of time.
The people continued to come to him from everywhere, and because of their number he planted herbs and vegetables for them. When the palms in his garden grew, the beasts of the forests came in to eat the fruit. One day, he caught one of them and said to him, "Why do you harm me when I do you no harm. Get out of here and never come back." It was said that the beasts never returned to his plantation.
One day, God showed him what will happen to the Christians of Alexandria from the evil of Arius. The Saint was greatly disturbed, he stuck his face to the ground and asked our Lord Jesus Christ with fervent words to deliver the believers from this tribulation. God comforted him by showing him how the Church will be victorious.
Before long, the attack of Arius on the Orthodox became stronger, so St. Athansius the Apostolic sent to him asking him to go with him to face the followers of Arius, because King Constantine and his children had previously written to this Saint and asked him in humility to condescend and answer their letter. The Monks were greatly astonished at the King's humility and they showed their bewilderment. So the Saint gathered them and aid to them, "Do not be surprised that the Kings of the earth wrote to us and the Christians must not be proud in this matter and be astonished. The amazing thing that is bewildering to the minds is that God wrote His law for the benefit of humanity and sent it with the most pure. At the end of the days, He spoke to us through His Only Begotten Son who cannot be measured with any king or sultan."
When the Monks saw that he was uninterested in answering the letter of the king, they told him of the necessity of answering, not because he was a king, but because he was a Christian who asked for advice and that he had to answer him. So he answered, "I insist with you that you worship Jesus Christ and I urge you to think of your salvation, and to despise earthly matters and not for a moment forget the final judgment. Meditate on Jesus Christ as the one, true, and eternal King and to take instinct as the law for your work, in the management of the matters of the kingdom, and to proceed with kindness and justice, helping the poor thus you help your brothers."
When the King, his children and the officials of the nation read the letter, they were strongly impressed and they realized the difference between the writings of the Orthodox and those of the Arians which were filled with the spirit of hypocrisy. The king kept the Saint's letter as a treasure.
(To be continued...)
Copyright © 2004 Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. The above article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A.
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