Monastery of Saint Anthony

Saint Anthony the Great
Father of Christian Monasticism
Born	251 Heracleus, Egypt
Died	356 Mount Colzim, Egypt
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Eastern Catholic Churches Oriental Orthodox Churches Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Major shrine	Monastery of Saint Anthony, Egypt Vienna, Austria
Feast	January 17 (West) January 30 = Tobi 22
Attributes	bell; pig (in the west); book; crutch; hermit; Saint Anthony's cross; tau cross with a bell on the end
Patronage	amputees; animals; basket makers; brushmakers; Burgio, Sicily; butchers; domestic animals; eczema; epilepsy, ergotism; erysipelas; graveyards; hermits; Hospitallers; monks; pigs; relief from pestilence; Saint Anthony's fire; skin diseases; skin rashes; swineherds

Born in the Upper Egypt town of Coma near Heracleopolis in the year 251 A.D, St. Antony the Great, when orphaned at the age of 18, became a hermit and thus lived to 105 years old. He lived as an Anchorite, as still exists in Egypt, and it is said that he was tormented his entire life by flatteries and temptations of the devil. He, along with St. Pachomius, were two of the first exponents of Christian monasticism, which originated in the Egyptian desert. He is buried beneath one of the ancient churches (St. Antony) of the monastery

The fortress-like Coptic Monastery of St Anthony the Great stands at an oasis spring in the Red Sea Mountains, 155 km (100 miles) south east of Cairo. It was founded in the mid-4th century, perhaps in 356, on Saint Anthony's burial site. The Coptic Orthodox monastery, presided over by an abbot, is the oldest Christian monastery in the world.

In 2005 it was reported that monks' cells dating to the 4th century - the oldest ever found - had been discovered at the monastery, beneath the Apostles Church.

Popes from Monastery of Saint Anthony

• Pope Mark VII
• Pope John XVIII

See also

• Coptic Orthodox Church