Antony of Egypt		 January 17
Abbot
Antony was one of the earliest leaders of the monastic movement in the church, and did much to popularise this style of Christian discipleship in the third and fourth centuries.
He was born in 251 in Egypt. His parents died while he was young, and he and his younger sister inherited the family estates. Six months later, Antony listened to the gospel passage, “Go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor” (Matthew 19-21), and determined to do likewise. He made provision for his sister and then became an anchorite (a solitary ascetic). He withdrew to a desert area to live a life of strict prayer, labour, and fasting, providing for his needs by gardening and making mats.
Antony was not the first Christian ascetic, but his lifestyle had a great appeal in the late third and early fourth centuries as a model for the committed Christian. In a world which saw civilisation in terms of the cities, the desert was the haunt of demons. With the growing popularity of Christianity, the earnest zeal of some Christians, which had led to martyrdom under persecution, now found a new outlet in carrying the fight with evil into the desert. Such a movement was enhanced by the growing totalitarianism of society in the Roman Empire, battened down for survival; the desert offered a viable alternative. The ascetic movement also gained favour from the basic Platonism of the age, which valued things of the mind and spirit much more highly than the body. The body and its needs were to be subject to the soul.
Athanasius greatly popularised the ascetic movement in his Life of Antony. In this work, he presents the anchorite as a hero of Christian life, in triumphant battle with evil and in the integration of life, brought about when the body is truly disciplined to serve the purposes of the soul devoted to God.
People began journeying out into the desert to see Antony. His first reaction was to go even further into the desert. His advice to people was simple yet profound, direct and to the point, refreshing in its brevity and full of commonsense. Once someone asked him, “What rules must I keep in order to please God?” Antony replied, “Carefully observe what I tell you: Wherever you go, have God always in your mind’s eye; whatever you do, do it after the example of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, be in no hurry to leave. If you keep these three rules, you will be saved.”
In 305 he agreed to leave his cave and established a “monastery”, a group of cells lived in by those who wished to follow his ascetic life. He wrote for them a basic set of rules for personal discipline and for community living. The community aspect lay almost solely in common worship. Antony was described as balanced, gentle, caring, and radiant with God’s love. Solitude made him compassionate and gave him a “serenity of manner”. “He was a man of grace and urbanity. His speech was seasoned with divine wisdom.” His own personal preference for the solitary life led him to withdraw from the community to the desert again from about 310.
He visited Alexandria to encourage those facing persecution at the beginning of the fourth century. Later, in the theological controversies over the Trinity, he again visited Alexandria at the age of ninety to give support to his friend Athanasius in his battle for the Nicene party again the Arians. True to his solitary vocation, he asked to be buried in a place known to no-one. He died peacefully in 356.

For Liturgical use
Antony was born about 251. As a young man, he chose to give away his possessions and live an ascetic life in the Egyptian desert. Solitude and manual work, poverty and self-denial, charity and prayer were the hallmarks of his life. He went through great spiritual struggles, which gave him the wisdom to offer rich and sensible counsel. Many came into the desert to model their lives on his and to discover through silence a purity of heart which leads to an ever greater love. Antony died in 356.
Sentence
The just shall flourish like a palm tree; planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God. 		Psalm 92:12,13
Collects
Merciful God,
the strength of all who commit themselves to you,
you called Antony to renounce the world
and to serve you in the solitude of the desert;
give us grace to follow the way of perfection, 
that we may count all things as loss
in the joy of knowing Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

God of the desert,
we remember before you the thousands
who went to seek you in solitude,
and especially Antony the hermit;
may we too overcome temptation
and come to terms with our secret selves.
Psalms 	18:31-37	91:9-16

Readings
1 Kings 17:2-6		Elijah in the desert
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 	Self-discipline
Matthew 19:16-26 		Renouncing the world

Post Communion Sentence
Be imitators of God as dear children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.		Ephesians 5:1,2