Agios Antonios – Lithograph – Mount Athos

Description

Saint Anthony the Great: Life

Saint Anthony was born in 251 AD in Upper Egypt to wealthy and pious parents whom he lost at a young age. Since childhood, he was frugal and showed great zeal for the devotional life of the Church. After the death of his parents and after settling his younger sister, he distributed his belongings among the poor and retired to a desert cave. There he lived an ascetic life for 25 years.

During his ascetic life, Saint Anthony never changed his garment or washed his body. He taught his disciples to abstain from the goods of the world, without thinking that they were deprived of anything important. He also taught them not to consider anything higher than the love of Christ.

Saint Anthony died in 356 AD, at the age of 105, in perfect physical and mental health. Shortly before he died, he gave to his two closest disciples, Athanasius the Great and Serapion, his only possessions, a tunic and two hides.

One of St. Anthony’s last wishes was for his burial place to be kept secret. However, the monks who lived near him said that they possessed the holy relic of the saint. During the reign of Justinian, in 561 AD, the relics of St. Anthony were transferred to the church of St. John the Baptist in Alexandria. From there, in 635 it was transferred to Constantinople. In the 11th century, a French nobleman named Joslén received the holy relics of St. Anthony and transferred them to St. Anthony’s Abbey in the homonymous city of Southeastern France, where they are located today.

St. Anthony tamed his passions by reaching the maximum limits of asceticism. His soul could leave his body while he was still alive. He became the model of ascetics and is the founder of monastic life in the East. The Church has proclaimed him Great and honors his memory on January 17.

Lithograph Agios Antonios

Using a lithographed copy of Byzantine art, the charismatic hagiographer Nektarios Nastos created this work following the traditional method of artificial aging, as taught on Mount Athos. At the four corners, the icon is painted with a gold finish, between the digging of the artificial aging.

Origin: Mount Athos