Venerable · c. 251–356
Anthony the Great
Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great
New Calendar January 17 Old Calendar January 30
Why they are a saint
Anthony the Great was father of desert monasticism in Egypt; his life, written by St. Athanasius, taught the whole Church the monastic path. The years given for this life are c. 251–356. Orthodox Christians remember him among the venerable monastic saints.
Life
Saint Anthony was born in 251 in the village of Coma in Egypt, near the desert of the Thebaid, to pious Christian parents of illustrious lineage. After their death he heard in church the Gospel words, 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give it to the poor' (Matthew 19:21). He took them as addressed to himself and sold his property.
He shut himself in a tomb, where demons attacked and wounded him, yet he overcame them by trusting in God. He then settled in an abandoned fort across the river, where a friend brought him bread twice a year. During the persecution under Maximian he went to Alexandria to minister to the confessors in prison, and later he came again to defend the Orthodox faith against the Manichaean and Arian heresies.
He died peacefully in 356 at the age of 105, after asking his disciples to bury him in the desert. He left one of his monastic mantles to Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, who wrote his Life, the first biography of a monastic saint.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
Known as the Father of monasticism. The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Patron of monastics, desert-dwellers, because he lived the monastic life of prayer and asceticism.
Prayer
O holy Anthony the Great, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.
Do not confuse with Anthony of Kiev; Anthony of Siya; many later Anthonys.