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St. Antony Monastery in Egypt
- first monastery in Christianity
St. Antony (251 - 356 e.kr.)
'Antony you must know was by descent an Egyptian: his parents were of good family and possessed considerable wealth, and as they were Christians he also was reared in the same Faith..
After the death of his father and mother he was left alone with one little sister: his age was about eighteen or twenty, and on him the care both of home and sister rested. Now it was not six months after the death of his parents, and going according to custom into the Lord's House, he communed with himself and reflected as he walked how the Apostles left all and followed the Saviour; and how they in the Acts sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the Apostles' feet for distribution to then eedy, and what and how great a hope was laid up for them in heaven. Pondering over these things he entered the church, and it happened the Gospel was being read, and he heard the Lord saying to the rich man , "If thou wouldest be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow Me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.".
Antony, as though God had put him in mind of the Saints, and the passage had been read on his account, went out immediately from the church, and gave the possessions of his forefathers to the villagers--they were three hundred acres, productive and very fair --that they should be no more a clog upon himself and his sister. And all the rest that was movable he sold, and having got together much money he gave it to the poor, reserving a little however for his sister's sake..
The words above are the opening of the "VIA S. ANTONY" that was written by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (328-373a.d.) between year 356 and 362. His work is about the life of the hermit St. Antony and how the first monastery in Christianity grew up below St. Antony's desert cave, life and teachings.
St. Paul of Thebes is the first known hermit in Christianity, and he settled in the middle of the wilderness of Egypt's eastern desert around year 250 A.D. to escape the persecution of the Emperor Decius. The monastery that bears his name is located on the same place he later was buried, in a valley south of the St. Antony monastery. In year 340 or 341 A.D., St. Antony visited the hermit St. Paul just before he died. When St. Paul then passed away the story goes that two lions dug his grave where then St. Antony placed the hermits body.
In the desert valley where St. Antony had selected for his hermit life, it soon grows up a group of faithful hermits below his mountain cave. When hermits this way joined a group, well then they were not really hermits any longer - and voila, the first monastic society was born.
So while St. Paul is considered as the first hermit in Christianity, St. Antony becomes the father of monasticism.
While several Roman Emperors ordered persecution of the Christians in Egypt, Bedouin tribes attacked the monks in desert monasteries in certain periods. So to protect the monastery and the monks they build a high protective wall all around the St. Antony monastery.
Inside the protective walls of the monastery, the desert has been turned into a fertile oasis with agriculture fields and gardens. The monks grow vegetables, fruits and herbs here.
There are many monasteries around the Christian world, but most in the westen world are often more or less remains of a great, but lost past. Not so in Egypt - in the St. Antony monastery alone it lives around one hundred and twenty monks. To become a monk you have first of all show that you are not trying to escape worldly life, plus the fact that you got to have an academic education behind you (for the academic background there can be made some few exceptions, but these are extremely seldom done).
The monastery has a large library of books and scripts, and theological discussions are of course a logical topic for discussions among monks - today as yesterday. As the monastery has been famous in Europe from early medieval times and onwards (not at least due to Athanasius biography of St. Antony), influence from outside the monastery was quite normal. Many came here as pilgrims, and the records of the monastery shows that Christians from countries as Syria and Ethiopia stayed here on a permanent basis. Franciscan monks from Europe were another know group who had representatives staying for longer periods at the monastery.
The extremely exiting and important Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516) considered St. Antony as his "favourite saint", and his large triptych painting named "The temptation of St. Antony" is only one of many examples of St. Antony's position in the European culture.
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