Book · 45 chapters · 2 hr read · Moderate

The Life of Antony

The Life That Began Christian Monasticism

Other titles: Vita Antonii · Βίος Ἀντωνίου · The Life of Saint Antony · The Life of St. Anthony

Athanasius of Alexandria · 296–373

Begin reading Search in this book

About this book

Athanasius knew Antony personally and wrote his life shortly after the old hermit died. It follows a young Egyptian who hears the gospel read in church, sells everything, and walks into the desert to pray, and whose example emptied the towns into the wilderness behind him. Read across the empire within a generation, it carried the monastic ideal into the Latin West and was one of the books that turned Augustine around.

1. Antony you must know was by descent an Egyptian: his parents were of good family and possessed considerable wealth, and as they were Christians he also was reared in the same Faith. In infancy he was brought up with his parents, knowing nought else but them and his home.
From Birth and beginnings of Antony

Contents

  1. 1 Preface 2 min
  2. 2 Birth and beginnings of Antony 2 min
  3. 3 His early ascetic life 3 min
  4. 4 Early conflicts with the devil 4 min
  5. 5 Details of his life at this time (271-285?) 3 min
  6. 6 His life in the tombs, and combats with demons there 4 min
  7. 7 He goes to the desert and overcomes temptations on the way 1 min
  8. 8 How Antony took up his abode in a ruined fort across the Nile, and how he defeated the demons. His twenty years sojourn there 3 min
  9. 9 How he left the fort, and how monasticism began to flourish in Egypt. Antony its leader 2 min
  10. 10 His address to monks, rendered from Coptic, exhorting them to perseverance, and encouraging them against the wiles of Satan 36 min
  11. 11 The growth of the monastic life at this time (about A.D. 305) 1 min
  12. 12 How Antony renewed his ascetic endeavours at this time 2 min
  13. 13 How he sought martyrdom at Alexandria during the Persecution (311) 2 min
  14. 14 How he lived at this time 1 min
  15. 15 How he delivered a woman from an evil spirit 1 min
  16. 16 How at this time he betook himself to his inner mountain 3 min
  17. 17 How he there combated the demons 2 min
  18. 18 Of the miraculous spring, and how he edified the monks of the outer mountain, and of Antony's sister 2 min
  19. 19 How humanely he counselled those who resorted to him 4 min
  20. 20 Of the case of Fronto, healed by faith and prayer 1 min
  21. 21 Of a certain virgin, and of Paphnutius the confessor 1 min
  22. 22 Of the two brethren, and how one perished of thirst 1 min
  23. 23 Of the death of Amun, and Antony's vision thereof 2 min
  24. 24 Of Count Archelaus and the virgin Polycration 1 min
  25. 25 Strange tales of the casting out of demons 2 min
  26. 26 Of Antony's vision concerning the forgiveness of his sins 2 min
  27. 27 Of the passage of souls, and how some were hindered of Satan 2 min
  28. 28 How Antony reverenced all ordained persons 2 min
  29. 29 How he rejected the schism of Meletius and the heresies of Manes and Arius 1 min
  30. 30 How he confuted the Arians 1 min
  31. 31 How he visited Alexandria, and healed and converted many, and how Athanasius escorted him from the city 1 min
  32. 32 How he reasoned with divers Greeks and philosophers at the outer mountain 8 min
  33. 33 How he confuted the philosophers by healing certain vexed with demons 1 min
  34. 34 How the Emperors wrote to Antony, and of his answer 1 min
  35. 35 How he saw in a vision the present doings of the Arians 3 min
  36. 36 That his healings were done by Christ alone, through prayer 2 min
  37. 37 How wisely he answered a certain duke 1 min
  38. 38 Of the Duke Balacius, and how, warned by Antony, he met with a miserable end 1 min
  39. 39 How he bore the infirmities of the weak, and of his great benefits to all Egypt 1 min
  40. 40 Of his discernment, and how he was a counsellor to all 1 min
  41. 41 How, when now 105 years old, he counselled the monks, and gave advice concerning burial 3 min
  42. 42 Of his sickness and his last will 2 min
  43. 43 Of Antony's death 1 min
  44. 44 How Antony remained hale until his death, and how the fame of him filled all the world 2 min
  45. 45 The end 1 min

More like this

Begin reading →
On the Incarnation
Athanasius of Alexandria
57 chapters·2 hr 22 min read
Begin reading →
The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Clement of Rome
59 chapters·1 hr 1 min read
Begin reading →
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo
13 chapters·9 hr 22 min read
Begin reading →
On the Priesthood
John Chrysostom
7 chapters·3 hr 43 min read
Begin reading →
The Enchiridion
Augustine of Hippo
11 chapters·2 hr 52 min read
Begin reading →
The Treatises of Cyprian
Cyprian of Carthage
12 chapters·9 hr 57 min read