Saint Anthony Abbot, born in Egypt in the 3rd century AD, at the age of twenty renounced everything to live as a hermit until 106 years of age, becoming the most famous monk of ancient Christendom, a noble example of an ascetic life of austerity, sacrifice and extreme solitude.

Saint Anthony the Abbot, also known as Anthony the Great, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Fire, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite was born at Qumans, a village on the left bank of the Nile, approximately 251 AD, and died in the Thebaid Desert on January 17, 357. We know his life fairly well, thanks to the biography written by his disciple Athanasius.

Though he belonged to a rather wealthy family, from an early age he showed little interest in the flattery and luxury of worldly life. On the death of his parents he distributed all his wealth to the poor, chose to live as a hermit and retired into solitude, to work and pray, at first near his hometown and later in the desert.

Here he spent many years living in an ancient rock-hewn tomb, struggling against the temptations of the devil, who often appeared to him to show what he could have done if he had remained in the world.

His reputation as a hermit soon spread among the faithful and Anthony, who wanted to live totally detached from the rest of the world, was repeatedly forced to change his place of "residence" to escape the crowds of people who flocked to him from all over to get his advice and see him.

The saint is considered a protector of cattle - that are blessed during the festival - of swineherds, butchers and charcutiers, and in the past his image was placed above stable doors; Anthony is also the patron saint of bakers, was also invoked to ward off the fire, and not coincidentally his name is linked to herpes zoster, popularly known as "shingles" or "sacred fire".

Though he led a hard life, full of deprivation, Anthony was very long-lived: death (which he had predicted) took him at the age of 105, on the 17th of January 355 (or 356), in his hermitage on Mount Qolzoum. On his tomb, now the object of veneration by the faithful, a church and a monastery were built; his relics were brought to Constantinople in 635, then to France between the 9th and 10th centuries.
-IH

Other Saints of the Day
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2. Saint Sulpicius of Bourges
3. Saint Julian Sabas the Elder
4. Saint Nennius
5. Saint Neosnadia