17th Century Carved Panel Representing Saint Anthony The Great

Panel (former tabernacle door) from the 17th century representing Saint Anthony the Great in painted, sculpted and gilded wood Spain 17th century. Anthony the Great, also known as Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Hermit, or Anthony of the Desert, is a monk considered the father of Christian monasticism. His life is known to us through the story told by Athanasius of Alexandria around 360. He was born around 251 and died on January 17, 356 at the age of 105, between the arms of his two disciples, Macarius the Elder or Macarius of Egypt and Amathas. In the Middle Ages, the Hospitaller Order of Saint Anthony had the right to let its pigs roam the streets with a bell, which earned the saint the attribute of a pig and a bell. He is celebrated under the name of Saint Anthony on January 17 by Catholics and Orthodox, who also consider him venerable, and on the 30th of the ordinary calendar by the Orthodox old calendarists. Born in Egypt in Herakleopolis Magna (now Qeman, Fayyoum) into a fairly wealthy family of devout Christian Egyptian farmers, Antoine was orphaned at the age of eighteen with a younger sister to raise. Having land to cultivate, he took the Gospel to the letter (Mt 19,21), at the age of twenty, and distributed all his goods to the poor, after having installed his sister according to his wishes in a female community as “consecrated virgin, then he begins his life as an anchorite in an isolated place near one of his fields. Dressed in a horsehair hair, he divides his time between prayer and work near the hut of an old ascetic who initiates him into hermit life. He decides to strengthen his retirement by leaving to live for 13 years in the desert (chapter V of the Life of Antoine mentions that he goes so far as to lock himself up in one of the ancient Egyptian tombs of the mountain), founding the community of the Kellia (living in huts, caves or small hermitages, he celebrates with his community the synaxis on Saturdays) with his disciple Ammonas, who previously settled in Nitria. The influx of many disciples disturbing his isolation, he left in 285 to live as a hermit in Pispir, in the middle of the desert, in an abandoned Roman fort on the road to the Red Sea, imitating the many anchorites who lived in poverty and chastity in the around the towns. There, in the manner of Christ, he suffered the temptations of the devil which lasted longer and during which various demons tried to prey on his life. Antoine resisted everything, not letting himself be diverted by the fantastical visions that had multiplied, symptoms resembling ergotism. Little by little, around Antoine the Great began to gather disciples who came to follow his teaching. Living nearby in caves, they listen to him preach and join him in prayer. Over the years, they come together in different nuclei of disciples, electing an older one at their head and all choosing Antoine as their spiritual guide. They are west and east of the Nile. In 307 Hilarion of Gaza seeks his advice on how to organize a monastery in what is now Gaza: it is considered to be one of the first monasteries of Christianity. In 312, Antoine moves further away to isolate himself. He goes to Thebaid, on Mount Qolzum (where the monastery of Saint Anthony is today). The devil still appears to him from time to time, but no longer torments him as before. Revered by many visitors, Antoine always gives them wise advice, inviting them to prayer rather than violence. Religious who adopted the solitary way of life of Saint Anthony are called anchorites, as opposed to cenobites who choose life in monastic communities.