Antony of Egypt
Antony the Great
- Lived
- c. 251–356
- Era
- The fathers
- Where
- Egypt
- Tradition
- The apostolic communities
The desert as a way of life
A Coptic-speaking farmer's son who, hearing the gospel read in church, sold what he had and went into the Egyptian desert, eventually to the inner mountain by the Red Sea. Athanasius wrote his life immediately after his death.
Why it matters
He was not the first hermit but he became the pattern, and the Life of Antony was the most widely read book of its kind for a millennium — Augustine names it as part of what converted him. Monasticism began here and spread from Egypt to Syria, Gaul and Ireland. He came out of the desert twice, once to encourage the martyrs and once to preach against Arianism, and lived, by his biographer's count, to a hundred and five.
In the record
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64–313 AD Persecution
Imperial persecutions
Came out of the desert to encourage those on trial
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.