St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Full

By James T. Majewski ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 31, 2020 | In Catholic Culture Audiobooks (Podcast)

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We are re-releasing—in one contiguous sequence—our 6-part series of St. Athansius’ famous biography of St. Anthony. You’ll hear the introduction that kicked off our release of Part 1, but then you can sit back and enjoy the entirety of Athansius’ Life of St. Anthony without interruption.

You may already be familiar, from its countless recurrences across art and literature, with “The Temptation of St. Anthony”... but The Life of St. Anthony—of which the temptations are only part—is one of the most influential works in the history of Christian literature.

Setting aside the unique authority and influence of the biographer (the great Church father, St. Athanasius of Alexandria), the work itself describes the life of a singularly holy man. In fact, it is the earliest biographical account of a saint who had become such without having had to suffer martyrdom.

Though St. Anthony was not the first Christian hermit, he was the most popular: this account of his life did much to spread his ascetic and monastic ideals throughout the East and West. Anthony has been called not only the father of Christian monasticism, but even the founder of the religious life.

Needless to say, we are very excited to be bringing you The Life of St. Anthony in its entirety. If you’ve not done so, now is the time to register with us at http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio

Notes

Way of the Fathers episode on St. Anthony: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/anthony-desert-solitary-celebrity/

Episode on the Temptation of St. Anthony in art history https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/90-temptation-st-anthony-elizabeth-lev/

Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120446/early-christian-biographies

Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3080

Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes.

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