St. Anthony of the Desert (January 17th)

Of the relatively few Saints commemorated this week:

January 13th – St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

January 15th – Blessed James the Almsgiver, (OSSM)

January 17th – St. Anthony of the Desert, Abbot


I have chosen to write about  St. Anthony of the Desert.


He like St. Basil the Great (Jan 2nd) about whom I’ve written a few weeks ago, lived at the time when Christianity went from being a persecuted religion to being first legalized by Emperor Constantine the Great and then made the official religion of the Roman Empire.


The legalization and then making of Christianity the official religion of the Empire produced a number of problems.  First, it soon became clear that there were a number of doctrinal issues that had simmered under the surface during the centuries of persecution: Who exactly was Jesus?  Was Jesus human?  Was he Divine?  Was he both?  To what extent both?  St. Hilary was was involved in that discussion.


St. Anthony, in contrast, was part of another equally important question: During the time of persecution it was relatively easy to understand what one needed to live a good or even heroic Christian life – one had to be willing to die for the faith.  With Christianity now legal, indeed, the official religion, how was one to distinguish the good Christian from a lesser or even hypocritical one?


St. Anthony came up with a response to this question that deeply touched the Christian community of his time:  Born into a Christian if relatively rich family in Alexandria, Egypt, after losing his parents as a young adult, he gave his family’s wealth to the poor and went off to the Desert to live a life of solitude and prayer.


Soon people from all over Egypt and across the larger Christian world came to search him out and seek guidance.  He became one of the first Christian hermits and certainly the best known, as well as arguably one of the first and one the most important Christian spiritual directors.


Yet what he simply did was simply follow Jesus’ words to the rich young man who came to Jesus asking what he needed to attain eternal life (Mt 19:16- 21):  Jesus responded, “follow the Commandments,” and then after the young man responded that he was already doing so, “Jesus looked at him with love and said, ‘if you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’”


St. Anthony took this counsel literally and almost singlehandedly began the process of creating religious life, influencing people like St. Basil the Great and later St. Benedict, as well as every monk, friar and nun and religious sister who’s lived ever since.


Yes, a single person, a single gesture of faith can change history and change the world.


St. Anthony, pray for us.



Caption for the accompanying picture: From The Torment of St. Anthony attributed to Michelangelo

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