Saint Anthony the Great ~ "A time is coming when men will go mad..."

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“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when
they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him,
saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.'”
~Saint Anthony the Great

January 17 is the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of monasticism. He is reputed to have lived over 100 years, dying in ca. AD 356 after having lived most of his life in the harsh Egyptian desert. Today, he is known by a variety of names, including, among others:

• Saint Anthony the Abbot 
• Saint Anthony the Hermit 
• Saint Anthony of the Desert 
• Saint Anthony of Egypt

Click here for more info.

The quote above is taken from a work known as Apophthegmata Patrum, or Sayings of the Desert Fathers as translated into English by Benedicta Ward. I have seen bits and pieces of this work all over the internet, but I still need to acquire a copy for myself.

Here are some other samples of quotes from Saint Anthony the Great from the same work:

"God does not allow the same warfare and temptations to this generation as he did formerly, for men are weaker now and cannot bear so much." [My God, what would he say about our own age?]

"Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labor in vain."

"I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice saying to me, 'Humility.'" 

"Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without temptations no one can be saved."

These quotes were picked up from a more extensive list here.

An ancient biography of Saint Anthony was written by his near-contemporary, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, and is available online at newadvent.org. Here is how Saint Athanasius describes the upbringing of Saint Anthony and his call to the ascetic life in about AD 270:

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. In infancy he was brought up with his parents, knowing nought else but them and his home. But when he was grown and arrived at boyhood, and was advancing in years, he could not endure to learn letters, not caring to associate with other boys; but all his desire was, as it is written of Jacob, to live a plain man at home [Genesis 25:27].

With his parents he used to attend the Lord's House, and neither as a child was he idle nor when older did he despise them; but was both obedient to his father and mother and attentive to what was read, keeping in his heart what was profitable in what he heard. And though as a child brought up in moderate affluence, he did not trouble his parents for varied or luxurious fare, nor was this a source of pleasure to him; but was content simply with what he found nor sought anything further.

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 Savior; and how they in the Acts sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the Apostles' feet for distribution to the needy, 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 you would be perfect, go and sell that you have and give to the poor; and come follow Me and you shall 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.

From Athanasius's work may also be found the explanation of the strange painting of Saint Anthony featured above (by Bernardino Parenzano, ca. AD 1494) as he is beset by all variety of demonic forces while he lived alone in the ruins of an abandoned fort:

"But those of his acquaintances who came, since he did not permit them to enter, often used to spend days and nights outside, and heard as it were crowds within clamoring, dinning, sending forth piteous voices and crying, '"Go from what is ours. What do you even in the desert? You can not abide our attack."

"So at first those outside thought there were some men fighting with him, and that they had entered by ladders, but when stooping down they saw through a hole there was nobody, they were afraid, accounting them to be demons, and they called on Antony. Them he quickly heard, though he had not given a thought to the demons, and coming to the door he besought them to depart and not to be afraid, "For thus," said he, "the demons make their seeming onslaughts against those who are cowardly. Sign yourselves therefore with the cross, and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves."

"So they departed fortified with the sign of the Cross. But he remained in no wise harmed by the evil spirits, nor was he wearied with the contest, for there came to his aid visions from above, and the weakness of the foe relieved him of much trouble and armed him with greater zeal. For his acquaintances used often to come expecting to find him dead, and would hear him singing, "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, let them also that hate Him flee before His face. As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; as wax melts before the face of fire, so let the sinners perish from the face of God." And again, "All nations compassed me about, and in the name of the Lord I requited them."

Saint Anthony the Great's vividly described torments and temptations have been the subject of numerous magnificent and disturbing works of art down through the centuries, by artists from Giotto and Michaelangelo to Bosch and Dali.

Despite secluding himself in the desert, Anthony became known across the world. Athanasius expounds upon his renown, saying:

His fame has been blazoned everywhere; that all regard him with wonder, and that those who have never seen him long for him, is clear proof of his virtue and God's love of his soul. For not from writings, nor from worldly wisdom, nor through any art, was Antony renowned, but solely from his piety towards God. That this was the gift of God no one will deny. For from whence into Spain and into Gaul, how into Rome and Africa, was the man heard of who abode hidden in a mountain, unless it was God who makes His own known everywhere, who also promised this to Antony at the beginning? For even if they work secretly, even if they wish to remain in obscurity, yet the Lord shows them as lamps to lighten all...