biography
| name: |
Antony or Anthony, St
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known as Antony the Great, also called Antony of Egypt
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.251–356)
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| biography:
| Religious hermit, the father of Christian monasticism, born in Coma, a village near Heracleopolis Magna in Upper Egypt. He sold his possessions for the poor at the age of 20 and withdrew into the wilderness. He spent 20 years in the most rigorous seclusion, during which he withstood a series of temptations by the devil which became famous in Christian theology and art. In 305 he left his retreat to found a monastery, at first only a group of separate and scattered cells near Memphis and Arsinoë - one of the earliest attempts to instruct people in the monastic way of life. Feast day 17 January. |
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