Feast of St. Anthony the Great
Today is the Feast Day of St. Anthony the Great, or Anthony of the Desert, as he is sometimes called. Although he is not the first monk or aesthetic, his austere lifestyle and influence in gaining hundreds of followers and to forsake everything to devote their lives to prayer and alms giving won him the honor as the Father of Monasticism. From the Life of St. Anthony by St. Athanasius of Alexandria When Anthony was about eighteen or twenty years old, his parents died, leaving him with an only sister. He cared for her as she was very young, and also looked after their home. Not six months after his parents’ death, as he was on his way to church for his usual visit, he began to think of how the apostles had left everything and followed the Saviour, and also of those mentioned in the book of Acts who had sold their possessions and brought the apostles the money for distribution to the needy. He reflected too on the great hope stored up in heaven for such as these. This was