"For the whole life of man is very short, measured by the ages to come, wherefore all our time is nothing compared with eternal life..."

St. Antony the Great, often referred to throughout the East and West as the “Father of Monks,” was born in 251 to pious, wealthy Christian parents who lived near the Egyptian Thebaid in a village called Coma. His parents both died by the time he was about 20 years old, leaving him to care for his sister. Shortly thereafter, upon hearing in church the verse from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus instructs a young man to “go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow Me,” Antony “immediately” left everything to give himself totally to Christ through a life of harsh asceticism.

This is a new, revised edition of a 19th-century translation of a classic hagiographical work: the Life of Antony, written by his disciple, St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

This edition of the text includes:

• An introduction written by the editors of Publican Press, which the authors hope will be helpful to listeners as a starting point for further study of St. Antony, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and traditional Christian monasticism.
• Scholarly notes providing historical context.
• A newly-translated letter from an Arabic manuscript housed in the Monastery of St. Macarius in Egypt.

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