Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Anthony the Great
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Today is the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism, the first holy monk to found a monastery in the desert. On this day, we remember the very place to which he was led by the Spirit of God. Anthony the Great exemplifies true hope and complete, absolute trust in the Creator. He was a fairly wealthy Egyptian, a Copt, who owned his own farmland.
But one day, while going to work in the field, he decided to stop by the temple on the way, where the Gospel was being read at that moment, and he heard: “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).
Anthony went out and said: “The Lord says to me: follow Me, how can I now go and cultivate the field?” He immediately went and sold the field, and decided to leave part of the money for the food of his sister.
He went into the temple again and heard the words of God: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
After this, he gave away absolutely everything he owned and took his sister to a convent attached to the bishop's see. Monasteries didn't exist at the time, but monks had always been present, beginning with the Lord Himself, John the Baptist, and several Apostles: John the Theologian and Andrew the First-Called. After this, Anthony went to the celibate bishops, who taught him the basics of monasticism and spiritual practice. After spending some time with them, he decided to seek solitude to overcome his passions. He chose the tombs of idolaters as his place of solitude, and in his simplicity, he entered the very lair of the devil.
Egyptian tombs of idolaters are pagan crypts decorated with images of pagan gods — demons — covered with incantations. Such places were always teeming with demons as "guards." And so Anthony the Great settled there. The local "guards" — evil spirits — were very unhappy with such a neighbor. They beat him and told him he could be a monk as long as he wanted, but he couldn't live here, as this was their place of old. Villagers from a nearby village arrived, saw the beaten and exhausted Anthony, brought him home, fed him, hydrated him, and nursed him back to health. Afterward, he rose and immediately returned. The demons attacked him with even greater fury, growling, screaming, and calling for reinforcements — demonic princes, who beat Anthony even more.
Anthony the Great himself later recounted how the demons threatened to kill him and walked like giants, towering to the sky, with fiery eyes, terrifying fangs, and as black as Ethiopians. Anthony replied, "If you're trying to intimidate me, it means you have no power. There's no point in staging theatrical performances in front of me, fornothing will come of it." The demons beat him again, and again the villagers nursed him back to health. He returned to that place a third time and, as he later told his disciples, encountered Lucifer himself (he had encountered the devil several times). And during the first encounter, the devil appeared before him as described in the forty and forty-first chapters of the Book of Job, in the form of two monstrous beasts — a behemoth and a leviathan. The demons attacked him again and beat him terribly, while he cried out, "Jesus, Lord, help!" Immediately the Lord appeared to him in a blaze of glory, and the demons scattered in panic.
Anthony asks Christ, "Lord, where have you been?" Jesus replies, "I watched you fight for me." The Lord is like an experienced coach here: when a student struggles, He doesn't interfere; as soon as he asks for help, He appears.
After this, the Lord commands Anthony to go into the deep desert. And Anthony, the first of the monks (actually the second, but he only learned this toward the end of his life), obeying the Lord, goes into the deep desert fifteen kilometers from the Red Sea — a spur of the Sahara Desert, on the other side of the Nile. It's quite a terrifying place — red cliffs, practically no water. As is well known, deserts are often haunted by demons, while cities have always been considered the most protected, because they contain the temples of God, the relics of saints, and the Eucharist, the sacrifice offered there.
Anthony entered the desert, began his ascetic life, conquered his passions, learned virtue, and studied Holy Scripture and the Revelation of God. He is known to have known the entire Bible by heart. If he had a question, he distrusted himself and set out on a journey, sometimes five or six hundred kilometers, to seek an answer from a bishop or priest. Gradually, a community of monks who wanted to serve God began to gather around him. When one of his disciples asked how to be saved, Anthony replied that one should not change one's place of residence unnecessarily, one should not judge anyone, and that everything one does should be supported by the testimony of Holy Scripture — then one will be saved.
When Anthony the Great learned that the heresy of Arius, who opposed the legitimate Archbishop Athanasios and Anthony's spiritual friend, was spreading in the city of Alexandria, he decided to go there. This was in 346. Anthony the Great began walking the city, declaring in the streets that the truth lay with Athanasios. He urged people not to listen to the Arians, but to listen to the legitimate bishop. In this example, we see that in the Church, eldership is not opposed to episcopacy, but rather supports it. Anthony had many great disciples, such as Makarios the Great. Thanks to Anthony, the desert became populated like a city. Here, the great prophecy of the Prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: he foretold that the desert would become a city, and where jackals had once lived, the name of God would be glorified. And indeed, the Egyptian deserts became the birthplace of monasticism. From this root grew Palestinian, Syrian, Athonite, and Russian monasticism.
What special gift did Anthony possess that enabled him to accomplish such a great deed for the Church? He always trusted in the Lord, distrusted himself, and feared no one but Almighty God. As the Apostle Paul said, "Hope that turns to love must be ours if we wish to attain great things." And the salvation of the soul is the greatest thing we can achieve. All Christianity is built on hope in God; if a person does not trust in God, they cannot be called a Christian. Hope in God is based on the fact that God is the Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the world. And if we sincerely believe this, then we should fear no one but God. Our hope is connected with the resurrection of the dead, with the life of the age to come, in which we can already participate. The Spirit of God is accessible to man and makes him free, wherever he may be.
The devil once came to Anthony the Great, disguised as a simple man, and asked him if God could pardon him. Anthony prayed to God, and He revealed the conditions for pardoning Lucifer: stand on a high mountain before the entire world for three years and ask God for forgiveness, and then He will forgive and pardon Lucifer and restore all his virtues. To this, the devil laughed and replied, "I, who have power over the world, should I ask forgiveness from anyone?" He turned and left. Anthony did not fear the devil or his servants; he served God and placed his hope in Him. And his hope was not disappointed; he proved victorious and paved the way for others who continue to crush the enemy of mankind. Therefore, we need fear nothing, for God is with us. With us is the Spirit of God, who anointed us on the day of redemption, with us is the salvation that we have already received, with us is the grace of the Holy Spirit and the Orthodox faith, which is strong to crush every enemy.
We must learn to cultivate hope in our hearts. Those who do not believe in the Orthodox Church will have no true hope. And what hope can we speak of if a person does not believe that something awaits them after death? But we know what will happen in the end, and what awaits us. We know where we began, we know who our Father is, who our Creator is, how we were created, we know how we fell, and we know how we were restored. We know what saves us, who our Savior is, where our homeland is, how to get there, we have the strength and opportunity to get there, and we have the One who is our guide on this path. We have nothing to fear; we have solid grounds for hope. If we learn to apply our sacred faith, briefly outlined in the Creed, in life, then we will be filled with the hope of Christ and will be invincible in this world — whether by people, the Antichrist, Satan, or his servants. On the contrary, we will become mighty victors. Let us learn from Saint Anthony hope, faith and love, and through Anthony's prayers, may the Spirit of God be with us!
God bless you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
