Month: January 2018

Smoke of Satan in the Church Part 4

jgfhgSmoke of Satan in the Church – Part 4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

On the evening of Thursday, June 29th, 1972, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in the presence of a considerable multitude of the faithful coming from every part of the world, the Holy Father celebrated the Mass and the beginning of the tenth year of his Pontificate as the successor of Saint Peter.

In His Homily referring to the situation of the Church today, the Holy Father affirms that he has a sense that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

The Smoke of the Satan is distorting the teachings of the Church.

On the first of September, 1910 in a Motu Proprio entitled Sacrorum Antistitum Pope Pius X issued the oath against modernism. It mandated that “all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries” of the Catholic Church swear to it. This oath against modernism was a reaction to massive changes forced on society by sophisticated elites following the call of poet Ezra Pound to “Make it new!” and guided by philosophers such as Kant and Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche, political scientists like Karl Marx, and biologist Charles Darwin etc.

Changes in every aspect of life: philosophy, economics, political environments, social structures, sciences, architecture, literature, fashion, music, arts, everyday activities, and religious faith, in order to replace any of its traditional forms.

Philosophers attempted to synthesize the vocabularies, epistemologies, metaphysics and other features of certain modern systems of philosophy with Catholicism in much the same way as the Scholastic order had earlier attempted to synthesize Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy with the Church’s teaching.

Modernism may be described under the following broad headings as a rationalistic approach to the Bible. The rationalism that was characteristic of the Enlightenment took a pro-materialistic view of miracles and of the historicity of biblical narratives. The final overall teaching of modernism is that dogmata (the teachings of the Church, which its members are required to believe) can evolve over time – not only in their expression but also in their substance – rather than remaining the same in substance for all time.

“I don’t fear God, I love God!”

In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God.” “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, part one- 104)

Everybody who has studied the lives and teachings of the Fathers, Doctors and Saints of the Catholic Church, must admit their enormous respect for Holy Scripture. They recognize the unity of God and God’s word, they know that God’s Word is one with God, and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” (Luke 23:39-41)

In Holy Scripture fear of God, or fear of the Lord appears over a hundred times, the Catholic Church counts fear of the Lord as one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Jacques Forget explains that this gift “fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread, above all things, to offend Him.”

St. John Vianney for many years guided by fear of the God would recite the words: “My God, make me suffer whatsoever you wish to inflict on me, but grant that I may not fall into hell.”

“I would rather die than go to Hell” was the response of Christian children in the Middle East, asked to convert to Islam by their executioners from ISIS.

Today by many fear of the Lord is describe as “The feeling of amazement before God, who is all-present, and whose friendship we do not want to lose.” Jon Mallon the contributing editor in an article published in Inside the Vatican magazine an April 2006, writes that the “fear” in “fear of the Lord” is often misinterpreted as “servile fear” (the fear of getting in trouble) when it should be understood as “filial fear” – the fear of offending someone whom one loves.

How nice, but there is one problem, God didn’t put in to Holy Scripture that He “likes those who have feelings of amazement” before Him, or experience “filial fear” of Him. He used the simple term: Fear of God. The convicted criminal hanging on the cross next to Our Lord wasn’t talking about losing friendship, or offending someone whom one loves. He was talking about real fear, Fear of the Almighty, All-powerful, creator of the world, the just God, who rewards good and punishes evil.

If we truly believe in God – the creator of everything, then we must recognize that fear comes from God too.

Fear is an extremely important motivator in our everyday life. Fear of pain prevents us from harming ourselves, fear of losing the means to support ourselves motivates us to work, fear of punishment keeps us from trouble, etc.

The Fear of God is the greatest and most beneficial of all fears, because it is based on faith, on believing in God.

In the Lord’s Prayer we are calling to God, as our Father and we are His children. To better comprehend the importance of fearing God we can look at it in the context of the relationship between a parent and child.

From the time of birth the parent will prepare their child for adult life. In this process a caring parent will have to, in one way or another, punish the child for misconduct. Fear of punishment is a motivator for the child to get to know the parent, and to understand them in order to avoid future punishments. The Book of Proverbs 9:10 summarizes it in the words: “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

As fearing a parent is an important part of the process of growing into adulthood, the fear of the LORD is training for wisdom, and humility goes before honors (Proverbs 15:33) is important to grow in faith.

Over the time, when a child recognizes that punishment comes out of the consideration of a loving parent, slowly this fear will turn to admiration and love. One of the forms of the Act of Contrition reflects beautifully this transition:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

Fear of losing heaven, and the pains of hell is the foundation on which gratitude and love for God is build.

The idea of mercy above justice as propagated today by many, which is supposedly based on the revelations chronicled in the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul, diminishes the importance of fearing God. But if we read whole diary, we will find under #741 an extremely important message:

Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change;  the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it – a terrible suffering, since it is purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin.

I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like.

Tell sinful souls not to be afraid to approach Me; speak to them of My great mercy. (Diary 1396)

In the diary of St. Faustina Our Lord is offering to us mercy in one hand, and condemnation and suffering in hell, in the other. It is a good-cop, bad-cop scenario, combining both negative with positive motivation to guide us towards good.

If we will think about our lives as a constant struggle through salvation, as a spiritual war that we are in the center of, we will reach the conclusion that ignoring, or minimalizing the importance of our Fear of God is a trap of the devil. Lack of fear of God influences our decisions and our actions. Poemen, one of the desert fathers, an early Christian monk living in the deserts of Egypt, noticed the importance of fear of God and expressed it in words, “They smoke out bees in order to steal their honey. So idleness drives the fear of God from the soul, and steals its good works.”

Protestants, by breaking from the Catholic Church, abandoned a lot of Her teachings, and by rejecting the powerful protection of our Holy Mather, the Blessed Virgin Mary, opened themselves to the influence of Satan. His poison entered their churches first.

Lutheran theologian Rudolf Otto coined the term numinous to express the type of fear one has for the Lord.

Anglican C. S. Lewis references the term in many of his writings, but specifically describes it in his book The Problem of Pain and states that fear of God is not a fear that one feels for a tiger, or even a ghost. Rather, the fear of the numinous, as C. S. Lewis describes it, is one filled with awe, in which you “feel wonder and a certain shrinking” or “a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant of or prostration before it”. It is a fear that comes forth out of love for the Lord.

C.S. Lewis is saying that love is first, and fear comes from love. Isn’t this the opposite to what the Book of Proverbs says? Who knows better, C.S. Lewis or God? Fruits of such an approach are visible in many protestant churches: female pastors, recognition and acceptance of the same-sex “marriages,” loose interpretation of Holy Scripture, those are consequences of a lack of Fear of The Lord.

Sadly, the same poison (smoke of Satan) is now infiltrating the Catholic Church and Fear of the Lord is slowly diminishing.

As an effect we may hear Catholics proudly proclaiming;

I know where I am going after dead, I am going to heaven! 

If St. Andrew Avellino said with trembling: “Who knows what will be my lot in the next life? Shall I be saved or damned?” St. Louis Bertrand could not sleep during the night, because of the thought of the uncertainty of being damned or saved, the thought which would suggest itself to him: “Who knows whether thou wilt be lost?”  Padre Pio was working hard for whole his religious life trying to satisfy Gods justice, humbly hoping that if he won’t succeed at least he may plead for mercy.

Then how arrogant and self-righteous a person must be to disregard God, and God’s judgment and proclaim, “I am going to heaven.”

We may hope for it, but the last word belongs to God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

As an effect of the fading of the Fear of God, we are hearing new theories explaining the Gospel. Many Protestants long time ago decided that Blessed Sacrament is only a symbol, and that the consecrated host is not really the body of our Lord Jesus under the veil of bread, ignoring fact that our Lord Himself proclaimed “this is my body”, chronicled in the Gospels of St. Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Saints had extreme respect for Holy Scripture, they would do the private reading of It on their knees. To them words of our Lord from Matthew 4:4 “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God”, were not just a slogan, but reality, and by feeding on those words they gained eternal happiness.

Sadly, today many Catholics view the Bible as a subject of academic discussions and exchanges of opinions. They are falling into the same trap the Protestants have. A perfect example is the famous line; “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” On one of the catholic blogs we are reading;

“In my dealings with people – both Catholic as well as non-Catholic – I’ve heard the question raised many times: Why did Our Lord say those words? Was He abandoned by His Father? Was He doubting His divine mission? Was He rebelling against God? Did He lose hope? Did He lose faith? Every time, the person asking me is absolutely stunned when I tell them the following: Our Lord was quoting Sacred Scripture. Seriously. Every time. It’s one of the most well-known passages from Scripture, and yet apparently a huge number of people have no idea that Our Lord was quoting King David (Psalm 22).”*

By saying that Our Lord is only quoting Psalm 22 we are suggesting that His words have no factual basis, and if they have no factual base the sentence “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” must be structured differently, otherwise it is a lie. But we know that this is exactly what Jesus said from two sources, Gospels by St. Matthew and St. Mark. Is it possible that God, our Lord Jesus, after being beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns, carrying the cross, losing great amount of blood, then being nailed to the cross, with His whole body covered with bruises and wounds, while in enormous pain, on the verge of dead is only quoting Psalm 22? Only a theoretician separated from reality and inspired by Satan could come out with such an idea.

Many may not know and recognize the truth, that there is no greater joy for a human being than feeling the sweet hug of God, and the most painful experience is separation from Him.

The things Jesus did and said were done in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies, then isn’t it better to say that our Lord’s cry out to his Father is in fulfillment of Psalm 22, which prophesied that the Messiah would cry out during his suffering on the cross, and His suffering was not limited to physical pain only.

These are only two examples of the smoke of the Satan infiltrating the Catholic Church, as an effect of the fading Fear of God. Each of us can point to other misunderstandings of Holy Scripture. Many may say that those are small insignificant mistakes. To soften steel you need just to heat it up, and let slowly cool down. Likewise with our faith, it is slowly cooled down by such small things.

To be continued.

 

*http://theradicalcatholic.blogspot.com/2014/09/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consecration of Russia to Immaculate Heart of Mary

bvghfydtConsecration of Russia to Immaculate Heart of Mary

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”      /Matthew 7:21-24/

 Every day, God places challenges in front of us. They can be small or big, easy or difficult, obvious or hard to spot. These are ordinary requirements that come with being Catholic, like morning and evening prayers, going to church and the pious attendance of the Mass on Sundays and obligatory holydays, doing a good job at home and work. Then there are many other things which God wishes us to do, sometimes it is picking up a of piece of trash laying on the ground, at other times it is smiling at a person passing by, opening the door for an older person, helping a sinner change their ways through conversation or prayer in his intention, shaking someone’s hand, encouraging to work harder, etc. Every disobedience, doing something against the will of God or failing to do His will is sinful. If we recognize that every day is full of challenges it is easier to accept the truths from the passages: first letter of St. John 1:8 “If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” first book of Kings 8:46 “for there is no one who does not sin;” Ecclesiastes 7:20 “yet there is no one on earth so just as to do good and never sin.” On top of everyday challenges come extraordinary ones. The will of God unveiled through private revelations.

A hundred years ago, on July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima warned the three seers that if people did not stop offending God, He would punish the world “by means of war, hunger and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father,” using Russia as His chosen instrument of chastisement. She told the children that “to prevent this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart” and promised that, by this single public act, Russia would be converted, and peace would be given to the world.

The Mother of God cautioned that if Her requests were not granted, “Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated.”

True to Her word, Our Lady reappeared to Sister Lucy on June 13, 1929 at Tuy, Spain, when in a great and sublime vision representing the Blessed Trinity, She announced that “the moment has come for God to ask the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. By this means, He promises to save Russia.”

Later, this request having not been heeded, Our Lady said to Lucia: “They did not want to pay attention to my request. Like the king of France, they will be sorry, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread its errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer!”

On August 19, 1931, Our Lord Himself appeared to Sister Lucy in Rianjo, Spain and expressed His displeasure, saying “make it known to My ministers that, given they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution My command, they will follow him also into misfortune.”

 

Our Lord’s warning is a grave one indeed, referring as it does to His command, through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to the King of France that he consecrate his nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The King chose to ignore the command and thus condemned his dynasty and throne to the horrors of revolution, chaos and the guillotine.

In a letter to Father Gonçalves in 1936, Lucia mentions another communication from Our Lord: “…Pray very much for the Holy Father. He will do the consecration of Russia, but it will be too late. Nevertheless, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia. It has been entrusted to Her.”

In response Pope Pius XII: On October 31, 1942, consecrated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and on July 7, 1952, consecrated the Russians to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Pope Paul VI: On November 21, 1964, confided the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Pope St. John Paul II made two consecrations of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: in Fatima on May 13, 1982; and in Rome on March 25, 1984.

Pope Benedict XVI on May 13, 2007, invoking Our Lady of Fatima on the ninetieth anniversary of the apparitions, stated, “In a special way we entrust to Mary those peoples and nations that are in particular need, confident that she will not fail to heed the prayers we make to her with filial devotion.”

Many say that those attempts listed above didn’t exactly follow request of Our Lady of Fatima, and are not valuable. It is not our job to judge, let us give it to God, and be inspired and instructed by St Paul in The Letter to Romans 8; 14-17 “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” As children of God and heirs of God we can, each of us, individually consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If in the spirit of being children of God, in the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great for Souls in Purgatory, we offer God the Most Precious Blood of our Lord, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world on this day. If while reciting The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy we are offering God the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of His Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Why not in the same spirit consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? We can do it every day with our morning or evening prayers, or even in the middle of the day or whenever is convenient. We don’t need permission or approval for prayer that follows the directives of Our Lord from Matthew 6:7 “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” We can compose our own, simple one or two sentences as an act of consecration, or recite the one posted below. Prayed with conviction, coming from the heart, it will do the job.

The words of our Lord; “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” should be enough to persuade anybody to act, because none of us want to be at the Day of Judgment among those who ignored the will of God.

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’” Powerful and awakening words reminding us that failing to follow the will of God, is serving evil.

 

Act of consecration

Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, I a wretched and unworthy sinner consecrate today and always and surrender, Russia, and myself to Thy Immaculate Heart. Through the same Christ our Lord, Amen. Virgin most powerful pray for us.

link to flyer here

Saint Anthony of the Desert

ushtgSaint Anthony of the Desert

Patriarch of Monastic Life (251-356)

Anthony was born in Coma near Heracleopolis Magna in Fayum, Egypt in 251 AD to wealthy landowner parents. When he was about 18 years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. Hearing at Mass the words, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven.”[Mt 19:21]— staying only to see that his sister’s education was completed,  placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-convent — gave away some of his family’s lands to his neighbors, sold the remaining property, and donated the funds thus raised to the poor He then left to live an ascetic life. For the next fifteen years, Anthony remained in the area.  He begged an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life. He also visited various solitaries, undertaking to copy the principal virtue of each, and then retired into the desert.

Anthony is sometimes considered the first monk to initiate solitary desertification, but there were others before him. Christian ascetics such as Thecla had likewise retreated to isolated locations at the outskirts of cities. Anthony is notable for having decided to surpass this tradition and headed out into the desert. He left for the alkaline Nitrian Desert (later the location of the noted monasteries of Nitria, Kellia, and Scetis) on the edge of the Western Desert about 95 km (59 mi) west of Alexandria. He remained there for 13 years. According to St. Athanasius, the devil fought 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 into the desert to a farther mountain by the east bank of Nile called Pispir (now Der-el-Memun), opposite Arsinoe. To serve God more perfectly, Anthony immured himself in a ruin of old abandoned Roman fort, building up the door so that none could enter.

There he lived strictly enclosed for some 20 years. According to St. Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes, and scorpions. They appeared as if 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 his saying this, they disappeared as though in smoke. One night, while Anthony was in his solitude, many devils scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend found him in this condition, and believing him dead carried him home. But when Anthony came to himself he persuaded his friend to take him back, in spite of his wounds, to his solitude. Here, prostrate from weakness, he defied the devils, saying, I fear you not; you cannot separate me from the love of Christ. After more vain assaults the devils fled, and Christ appeared to Anthony in His glory.

While in the fort he only communicated with the outside world by a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words. Saint Anthony’s only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise. 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, who broke down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away or to have gone insane in his solitary confinement. Instead, he emerged healthy, serene, and enlightened. Everyone was amazed that he had been through these trials and emerged spiritually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Anthony began to spread and grow. Anthony went to Fayyum and confirmed the brethren there in the Christian faith before returning to his fort. His admirers became so many and so insistent that he was eventually persuaded to found two monasteries for them and to give them a rule of life. These were the first monasteries ever to be founded, and Saint Anthony is, therefore, the father of cenobites of monks. He anticipated the rule of Benedict by about 200 years, engaging himself and his disciples in manual labor. Anthony himself cultivated a garden and wove rush mats.

Amid the Diocletian Persecutions, Anthony wished to become a martyr and in 311 went to Alexandria. He visited those who were imprisoned for the sake of Christ by Maximinus and comforted them. When the Governor saw that he was confessing his Christianity publicly, not caring what might happen to him, he ordered him not to show up in the city. However, the Saint did not heed his threats. He faced him and argued with him in order that he might arouse his anger so that he might be tortured and martyred, but it did not happen. At the end Anthony returned to his old Roman fort.

By this time, many more had heard of his sanctity and he had many more visitors than before. He saw these visits as interfering with his worship and went further into the inner desert. He traveled for three days before reaching a small oasis with a spring and some palm trees, that lay between the Nile and the Red Sea, and chose to settle there. He fixed his abode on a mountain where still stands the monastery that bears his name, Der Mar Antonios.

In 338, he left the desert temporarily to visit Alexandria to help refute the teachings of Arius. Although not particularly learned, Anthony was able to confound the Arians.

According to St. Athanasius, Saint Anthony heard a voice telling him “Go out and see.” He went out and saw an angel who wore a girdle with a cross, one resembling the holy Eskiem (Tonsure or Schema), and on his head was a head cover (Kolansowa). He was sitting while braiding palm leaves, then he stood up to pray, and again he sat to weave. A voice came to him saying, “Anthony, do this and you will rest.” Henceforth, he started to wear this tunic that he saw, and began to weave palm leaves.

When Saint Macarius visited Anthony, Anthony clothed him with the monk’s garb and foretold him what would happen to him.

Once, Saint Anthony tried hiding in a cave to escape the demons that plagued him. There were so many little demons in the cave though that Saint Anthony’s servant had to carry him out because they had beaten him to death. When the hermits were gathered to Saint Anthony’s corpse to mourn his death, the Saint was revived. He demanded that his servants take him back to that cave where the demons had beaten him. When he got there, he called out to the demons, and they came back as wild beasts to rip him to shreds. Suddenly, a bright light flashed, and the demons ran away. Saint Anthony knew that the light must have come from God, and he asked God where was he before when the demons attacked him. God replied, “I was here but I would see and abide to see thy battle, and because thou hast mainly fought and well maintained thy battle, I shall make thy name to be spread through all the world.”

When Saint Anthony was over ninety, he was commanded by God in a vision to search the desert for Saint Paul the Hermit. Saint Anthony went to him and buried him, after clothing him in a tunic which was a present from Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, the 20th Patriarch of Alexandria.

The monasticism established under St. Anthony’s direct influence became the norm in Northern Egypt.

St. Anthony was a man who chose to live in dire poverty, but from this poverty arose his three divine paradoxes. He was extremely underfed, yet appeared in perfect health, standing a solid six-feet tall. He maintained the appearance of youth throughout his life. He was extremely isolated, yet he suffered the agony of popularity. He was extremely ignorant, yet outsmarted the cream of Greece’s intelligentsia. Two Greek philosophers came to meet St. Anthony, and he asked why they wished to meet with a fool. When they replied that he was no fool, but wise and prudent, Anthony told them this: “If you think me prudent, become as I am, for we ought to imitate what is good. And if I had come to you, I should have imitated you; but if you to me, become as I am, for I am a Christian.” Having no desire to be converted, the philosophers departed in silence.

He is said to have survived until the age of a hundred and five, when he died peacefully in a cave on Mount Kolzim near the Red Sea. Anthony had been secretly buried on the mountain-top where he had chosen to live. His remains were reportedly discovered in 361, and transferred to Alexandria. Sometime later, they were taken from Alexandria to Constantinople, so that they might escape the destruction being perpetrated by invading Saracens. In the eleventh century, the Byzantine emperor gave them to the French Count Jocelin. Jocelin had them transferred to La-Motte-Saint-Didier, which was then renamed Saint-Antoine-en-Dauphiné. There, Anthony is credited with assisting in a number of miraculous healings, primarily from ergotism, which became known as “St. Anthony’s Fire.”

Saint Athanasius, his biographer, says that the mere knowledge of how Saint Anthony lived is a good guide to virtue.

[1] “Saint Anthony of the Desert – Lives of the Saints,” Magnificat, 13 December 2017. [Online]. Available: http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_anthony_of_the_desert.html. [Accessed 2 January 2018].
[2] “Anthony the Great,” Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great. [Accessed 2 January 2018].
[3] “St. Anthony,” New Advent, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01553d.htm. [Accessed 2 January 2018].
[4] J. Goerke, “St. Anthony of the Desert and the Three Divine Paradoxes,” National Catholic Register, [Online]. Available: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/st.-anthony-of-the-desert-and-the-three-divine-paradoxes. [Accessed 2 January 2018].