Life Of St. Anthony Analysis

Athanasius wrote Life of St. Antony to advocate to monks that the proper way to live a holy life is through imitation. He was tasked with writing to the monks about St. Antony, and while he has a multitude of things to say about Antony, he chose to fixate on Antony’s imitation of scripture and other holy men. Athanasius tells the monks to “guide yourselves by imitations of him,” referring to Antony, and the irony is that Antony became a saint through imitation of others (28). He is showing the monks that imitation is the best way by recounting the times that Antony used imitation to overcome the evils of the world. He discloses the Antony’s journey begins when in “remembrance of the saints” he “gave to the villagers the possessions he had …show more content…
The last bit of this shares how Antony “persuaded many to choose the solitary life” (34). He basically ends it to say that if the monks do not want to listen to what he had to say to at least listen to Antony and lead “the solitary life” (34).
There is obviously limits to how much the monks can imitate Antony, and Athanasius only writes about the parts of his life that should be imitated. Antony was from Egypt, so I true imitation would be to relocate to Egypt and live in solidarity there, but Athanasius carefully only lists that he is from Egypt in the title. This shows the monks that their location (Italy, France, etc.) does not matter, but how they carry themselves as monks is what matters. Also, each monk with have their own trials and tribulations with the devil, and this letter is teaching them how to respond to these hardships.
Athanasius wants the monks to imitate Antony, as well as scripture and other figures, just as Antony imitated scripture, the old man, Elijah, and Paul. Athanasius carefully picks out several examples of imitation from Antony’s life as a monk and uses them in this letter to show to the monks the importance of imitation in their spiritual