medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (17. January) is the feast day of:
Anthony of Egypt (d. 356). The desert father A. (also Anthony abbot and, of course, Antony [with the same modifiers]) is probably well known to everyone on this list through his Athanasian Bios, either directly or through one or more translations. Apart from one letter in Greek and seven (perhaps not authentic) surviving in Latin translation, his sayings in the _Apophthegmata Patrum_, and some details in a Bios of Pachomius, this is really our only source for A. in his lifetime. A great model for imitation, influential (in Latin translation) in St. Augustine's own conversion, and called by St. Gregory of Nazianzus "a rule for the monastic life in the form of a narrative", this account presents A. as an unlettered man of great wisdom who gave away his goods and retired to the desert. Here he fought with demons and attracted disciples, whom (the disciples, not the demons) he in time organized into a monastic community before retreating again into near solitude.
A.'s reputation was already impressive in his lifetime. His cult, which will have been virtually immediate, is attested in the East from the fifth century. In the West, A. is listed for today in the martyrologies from Bede onward. In the eleventh century his purported relics were brought to a church in the Dauphiné near Vienne. There, at today's Saint-Antoine l'Abbaye (Isère), a larger church dedicated to A. was consecrated by Calixtus II in 1119. An adjoining hospice, said to have been founded in the late eleventh century, became the Benedictine hospital of St. Anthony at Vienne. In the thirteenth century this was the headquarters of a new order, the Hospitallers of St. Anthony (of Vienne). An exterior view of the abbey church (now a _paroissiale_) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/yypxra
And an interior one is here:
http://blog.ritacuzzupi.com/images/abbaye.jpg
A brief, French-language history of the church:
http://tinyurl.com/yeolv5
Here's an illustration from an early fifteenth-century Life of A. created for this house and now in the National Library of Malta:
http://tinyurl.com/2y839p
An English-language account of the manuscript:
http://tinyurl.com/29cvdx
Some views from Italy of churches dedicated to A. and of some depictions of him:
A.'s very late eleventh- or early twelfth-century church at Aidone (EN) in Sicily, incorporating parts of an earlier structure. The upper portion of the nave and the belltower are early modern. Two views:
http://www.quiaidone.it/images/santonioabate.jpg
http://www.quiaidone.it/images/Sant'AntonioAbate.jpg
The seemingly originally twelfth- or thirteenth-century rupestrian Cripta di Sant'Antonio Abate in Matera (MT), Basilicata. Views of the interior (the second with a fifteenth-century fresco of A.), part of the complex of four churches known as the Convicinio di Sant'Antonio:
http://tinyurl.com/2rocnr
http://tinyurl.com/2kx2ha
The later thirteenth-century (1269) portal of A.'s church at Rome:
http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi126.htm#S.%20Antonio%20Abate
The thirteenth-/fifteenth-century Oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate at Vimercate (MI) in Lombardy:
http://tinyurl.com/2ncnmy
The mid-fourteenth-century (1345-62) Chiesa di Sant'Antonio abate at Sansepolcro (AR; medievally Borgo Sansepolcro) in Tuscany:
http://tinyurl.com/2valxj
Portal (relief: 1350; A. at left):
http://tinyurl.com/2kyk9v
The later fourteenth-century (ca. 1360-63) Cappella (di Sant'Antonio) del Tau in Pistoia (PT), Tuscany, frescoed by Niccolò di Tommaso and others between 1370 and 1400:
http://digilander.libero.it/pistoia_tour/cappella_del_tau.htm
Two Italian-language pages dealing with aspects of A.'s cult here:
http://www.comune.pistoia.it/scoperta_citta/scoperta/scoperta_43.htm
http://www.comune.pistoia.it/scoperta_citta/scoperta/scoperta_44.htm
A fourteenth-century fresco of A. in the Chiesa di San Giorgio in Lemine in Almenno San Salvatore (BG), Lombardy:
http://tinyurl.com/33zc69
A fresco of A., said to be of the late fourteenth century, in the Chiesa/Oratorio dell'Annunciata (before 1399) at Cislago (VA), Lombardy:
http://tinyurl.com/2798ct
NB: The preferred local spelling _is_ 'Annunciata' (with a 'c').
A. in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century triptych of the Madonna and Child between Sts. Anthony Abbot and Michael the Archangel, by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (d. 1415), in the Pieve di S. Clemente, Pelago (FI), Tuscany:
http://tinyurl.com/2e974f
http://tinyurl.com/yr9ywd
A.'s originally late twelfth-century church, substantially modified in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and especially noteworthy for its early to mid fifteenth-century frescoes, at the Precettoria di Sant'Antonio di Ranverso in Buttigliera Alta (TO) in Piedmont, in the later Middle Ages a monastery of the Hospitallers of Saint Anthony. Some English-language accounts:
http://tinyurl.com/22dmpj
http://www.montagnedoc.net/EN/Cul/scheda?id_catalogo=31
A multi-page, Italian-language site with expandable views (click on 'vedi anche' for the other pages):
http://tinyurl.com/27xynz
The Italian nell'Arte Medievale page, including three views (at bottom) of the site's hospice located on the street leading to the church:
http://tinyurl.com/ysd2u9
Clearer views (expandable) of the phytomorphic carvings on the facade of the church:
http://tinyurl.com/2whqcq
A better view of the facade of the hospice (at left):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liviobonino/2193805658/
His fourteenth-/fifteenth-century church, with late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century frescoes, at San Daniele del Friuli (UD), Friuli-Venzia Giulia:
http://www.comune.sandanieledelfriuli.ud.it/territorio/chi_sa_ab.asp
A.'s cemetery church at Pelugo (TN) in Trentino - Alto Adige, with scenes from A.'s life painted on the exterior (the seated A. over the entrance is signed and dated 1474):
http://www.campanedirendena.it/notizie/santonio.htm
The late fifteenth-century portal of his church at Tossiccia (TE) in Abruzzo:
http://tinyurl.com/298hcw
A.'s originally late fifteenth-century church (consecrated, 1488; rebuilt in the nineteenth century) at Pravisdomini (PN), Friuli-Venezia Giulia:
http://tinyurl.com/yp8nl2
http://tinyurl.com/2ec5kr
http://tinyurl.com/23ugk9
http://tinyurl.com/yozx9s
The recently restored very late fifteenth-century statue of A. belonging to the Chiesa della Pianca, San Giovanni Bianco (BG), Lombardy:
http://tinyurl.com/26wwbw
A. in the foreground of an early sixteenth-century depiction of Pavia in that city's Basilica di San Teodoro:
http://tinyurl.com/33xs2c
A. is the patron saint of numerous Italian towns. In ceremonies honoring him at this time of the year fire is a major element, recalling the inflammations of erysipelas, etc. formerly referred to as St. Anthony's Fire. So of course is a blessing of animals, A. being widely considered their protector.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised and with some new visuals)
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