Feast of St Anthony the Abbot - January 7, 2007

The Augustinian Community together with the Confraternity of Our Lady of Consolation are celebrating the feast of St Anthony the Abbot in St Mark's church, Saqqajja, Rabat, on Sunday.

Most of what we know about the life of St Anthony is in the Greek Vita (Life of Antony) by Athanasius (d. 373). Anthony was born near Heraclea in upper Egypt in 251 to wealthy parents. At the age of 20, his parents died and left him in the care of his unmarried sister.

In 285, he decided to follow the words of Jesus who had said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me" (Matthew19: 21).

Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and needy, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-nunnery at the time.

According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art.

After that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church.

After he recovered, he made a second effort and went back to the desert, further out, to a mountain by the Nile. Here he lived strictly enclosed in an old, abandoned Roman fort for some 20 years.

According to Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against St Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions, which appeared as though they were about to attack him or cut him into pieces. But the saint would laugh at them scornfully and say: "If any of you have any authority over me, only one would have been sufficient to fight me."

At this they disappeared as if in smoke, and God gave him victory over the devil. While in the fort he only communicated with the outside world via a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words.

St Anthony would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He did not allow anyone to enter his cell: whoever came to him, stood outside and listened to his advice.

Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away, or gone insane in his solitary confinement, but he emerged healthy, serene and enlightened.

Everyone was amazed he had been through these trials and emerged spirit-ually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Anthony began to spread and grow.

When St Anthony felt that the day of his departure had approached, he commanded his disciples to give his staff to St Macarius, and to give one sheepskin cloak to St Athanasius and another to St Serapion, his disciple.

He further instructed his disciples to bury his body in an unmarked, secret grave, lest his body become an object of veneration. He stretched himself on the ground and gave up his spirit. St Anthony the Great lived for 105 years and departed in the year 356.

He is appealed to against infectious diseases, in particular herpes zoster, hence shingles are known as St Anthony's fire in Italy and Malta.

This devotion in the Augustinian church in Rabat started from the times of the Order of St John. Every January, the Augustinian community celebrates this feast in the morning with a procession and the blessing of animals.

Everybody is invited to bring his family and pets to Rabat to enjoy this traditional feast. The procession, which starts at 9.30 a.m., will be accompanied by the L'Isle Adam band. When the procession reaches the church at around 10.45 a.m., there will be the traditional blessing of animals.