medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Today (17. January) is the feast day of:
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> 1) Anthony of Egypt (d. ca. 356). The desert father A. (in English also Antony; also A. [the] Abbot, A. the Great, and A. the Hermit) is probably well known to everyone on this list through his Athanasian Bios (BHG 140), 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 St. Pachomius, this is really our only source for A. in his lifetime (St. Jerome's subsequent treatment of A. in his Vita of St. Paul of Thebes, also widely read in the Middle Ages, is essentially fiction). An idealizing model for imitation, influential in the conversion of St. Augustine of Hippo, it presents A. as an unlettered man of great wisdom who gave away his goods and retired to the desert. There he fought with demons and attracted disciples whom he organized as a monastic community before retreating again into near solitude.
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> A.'s reputation was already impressive in his lifetime. His cult, which will have been virtually immediate, is attested in the East starting in the fifth century. In the West, where Evagrius of Antioch's fourth-century translation of A.'s Bios into Latin (BHL 609) enjoyed very widespread circulation, A. is entered under today in the martyrologies from Bede onward.
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It might also be mentioned that St Anthony's original monastery in the eastern desert of Egypt was restored recently, and a fine publication has appeared featuring its wall paintings: Elizabeth S. Bolman, ed., Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St Antony at the Red Sea (New Haven, 2002)
Cheers,
Jim
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