Saints Anthony the Great and Athanasios the Great: Models of Mysticism and Action

by Archimandrite Sergius [Yazadzhiev, +2008]

Former Assistant Professor Faculty of Theology University of Sofia, Bulgaria

 

 

St. Anthony and St. Athanasios, on the occasion of whose commemorations (January 17 and 18, Old Style, January 30 and 31, New Style) I am writing these words, were not only contemporaries (both flourished in the mid-fourth century), but their work was carried out in the same geographical location. While St. Anthony performed his spiritual feats in the Egyptian desert, St. Athanasios was Patriarch of the main city of Egypt, Alexandria. Thus, it is not coincidental that the Holy Church has appointed two consecutive days on the Church Calendar for their commemoration. However, beyond the similarities with regard to the time and area in which they lived, the two Saints differ in several aspects: whereas St. Athanasios was highly educated and a man of erudition in both the field of theology and that of secular philosophy, St. Anthony was simple and illiterate—the former, a bearer of Patriarchal dignity, worked in metropolitan Alexandria, the latter, a common monk of ordinary rank, carried out his monastic life in the seclusion and stillness of the wilderness.

In spite of these perfunctory or trivial differences, what both Saints had in common was sanctity, the holy life which they led and which earned both of them the honorary title “Great." For, since the acquisition of the Holy Spirit and holiness are a manifestation of God, differences in appearance and conventional characteristics present no obstacle to spiritual greatness; indeed, according to the Apostle, “there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are diversities of ministration, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of working, but the same God, Who worketh all things in all" (I Corinthians 12:4-6).

Thus, St. Anthony was by nature called by God to the meditative life. He was one of the very first, and this at an early age, to renounce the vanity of the world and thus became the founder of the most difficult of tasks: that of the life of a hermit. The ultimate aim and significance of this life was to cleanse his heart of the passions and vices that thrive in the world—not to withdraw complacently into himself, thereby, but in order to help his fellow man either by his counsel or through his miraculous prayer. The great hermit was soon joined by many people similarly seeking and longing for the genuine spiritual life. His hagiographer, none other than St. Athanasios himself, says, in connection with this: “How did this recluse in the wilderness become famous in Spain and Gaul, in Rome and Africa, were it not for God, Who knows His own people everywhere? ...And although such people wish to live in seclusion, God reveals them and they cannot ‘hide their light under a bushel'" (St. Matthew 5:15).

Not only many Christians, but Gentiles [pagans or non-Christians], too, thronged to see St. Anthony; and he helped everyone. Thus, the troparion so rightly eulogizing him reads that “by his prayers he upheld and supported the entire universe." St. Athanasios speaks about the help rendered to all by St. Anthony: “Was there anyone sad who went to him and did not come back joyful? Or angered and did not become a friend? ...Or anyone whose faith was failing and did not become stronger than before? ...Or anyone worried and was not pacified? Who went to him tormented by demons and did not recover?"

Now, what was the source of the love that St. Anthony had for his fellow man, so diverse in its manifestations that, like a father, he embraced the grief and suffering of so many? Here we must remember the classic words of St. Anthony: “I no longer fear God, because I love Him." What he means is that he gradually rose above and surpassed the status of a slave, who complies with God's will because he fears him: “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:17). Beginning, like all strugglers and ascetics, with the fear of God, St. Anthony, through constant struggle against sin, attained the position of a son who does the will of his Heavenly Father, since he truly loves him and fears grieving him by his sins. Thus, the words of the Holy Apostle are demonstrated in fact: “But perfect love casteth out fear" (I St. John 4:18). This perfect love of God, which St. Anthony achieved by his spiritual feats, was the source of his constant love for his fellow man, who personified the image of God; a love which was expressed in manifold ways, according to the need of each.

But St. Anthony's zealous love for God has another, immediate expression: it was unleashed in a fiery fervency for the purity of God's truth, contained in the Orthodox Faith. The Saint's mind, purified of passions, clearly contemplated the truth of the Faith, and he flew into righteous anger whenever it was perverted by heresy. It is for this reason that when he was slandered with the accusation that he allegedly sympathized with the Arians, he “gave vent to his indignation and purposely went to Alexandria, where he denounced the Arian heresy and preached the Orthodox Faith to the people."

Thus, St. Anthony is primarily characterized as a typical hermit, who, saving his own soul, saved and yet saves the souls of so many of his fellow men; at the same time, he took a keen interest in the life of the public life of the Church, unmasking heresy and conforming and strengthening Christians in the truth of Orthodoxy.

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As we stated above, at the same time this great Saint, Anthony the Great, flourished, there lived and worked his pious contemporary, St. Athanasios of Alexandria. His life was filled with anxiety and struggle—for which reason he is called a “Father of Orthodoxy"—, his life ostensibly differs from that of St. Anthony. As early as his childhood, he was under the fatherly care and protection of St. Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, who later Ordained him Deacon and appointed him his secretary. Together with his spiritual guide, St. Athanasios took an active part in the sessions of the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea (325). There he rendered a great service in his opposition to the Arian heresy and, in particular, in enunciating the doctrine of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in the Symbol of the Orthodox Faith (the Creed).

Soon after the death of St. Alexander, Athanasios was unanimously elected and Consecrated Patriarch of Alexandria, being barely twenty-eight years of age. From that time forward there ensued his tireless and constant struggles with the Arian heretics, who recognized him as their greatest enemy. Therefore, using the power of certain Byzantine Emperors in their support, the Arians schemed and plotted against St. Athanasios, frequently even making attempts on his fife. As a result, he endured continuous persecution and exile for a full seventeen years—that is, for a third of his hierarchical service. Yet, in spite of all of these anxieties and horrors, he had the strength and fortitude of mind to utter the following remarkable words: “My heart is as filled with faith (reliance on God) in times of Grace as it is in times of persecution, because I firmly believe that if I die while suffering for Jesus Christ, fortified with His Grace, I shall be given greater mercy by Him."

During his travels and periods of exile, St. Athanasios did much good for people through his missionary endeavors and by firmly professing and elucidating the Orthodox Faith. St. Athanasios also visited the capital of our country (Bulgaria), then called “Sardica," and participated in the Council of Sardica in 343. The Saint's zeal for Orthodoxy fills every page of his numerous theological works, the greater part of which are characterized by their dogmatic and apologetic or defensive character. This is why the Church, in the troparion chanted in honor of the Saint, glorifies him as a “pillar of Orthodoxy, fortifying the Church and extolling Her Divine dogmas."

St. Athanasios was remarkable, preeminent among the Fathers in his instructions, writings, and activities. Must we thus conclude that such arduous activity obviated the possibility of his following the contemplative life? To state such is tantamount to repudiating all of his merits and the significance of his lifework. Though he did not have an opportunity to lead the fife of a hermit, since he was responsible for the administrative work of the Church, St. Athanasios was, generally speaking, a monastic ascetic, a recluse and hermit in the world. To this estrangement from the world he owed his purity of heart (St. Matthew 5:8) and his strong will, which enabled him to see clearly the truths of the Faith and to profess them steadfastly, without compromise, oblivious to all threats. St. Athanasios' homage to the hermits testifies to the fact that, during his periods of exile, he spent the majority of his time among the Egyptian recluses, where he felt relief from the tumultuous fife of the metropolis. He continually communicated with the desert hermits by letters and epistles which have been preserved down to present days. He paid singular honor to St. Anthony the Great, whom he gave one of his mantels, a mantel which was later used as a shroud when St. Anthony buried the first hermit monk, St. Paul of Thebes.

After St. Anthony's death, it was St. Athanasios who wrote his life, in which he so eloquently extolled the feats of the Founder of Monasticism.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XVIII (2001), No. 2, pp. 18-21.