St. Anthony of the Desert, or St. Anthony Patriarch of Monks, or St. Anthony, Abbot--as one and the same man is known, is also known as a hermit. While he was a hermit for a time period, he is not actually the first Christian hermit (St. Paul of Thebes has this distinction), St. Anthony did not remain in strict terms, a hermit, but more is noted as the father of monks or as abbot (of which St. Benedict who came a couple centuries later, is sometimes inaccurately considered father of monasticism).
However, we come to grasp that designations and distinctions can vary and ultimate, not matter as much as the Christian and holy examples people provide to humanity, through the ages. And there are, indeed, tendencies, vocations, sometimes more than one vocation or as we might today say "morphed" from one vocation into another or two or three or more vocations, and combinations thereof.
Thus, St. Anthony did live the life of a Christian hermit, one of asceticism and austerity, living the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience (to God, to the example of Jesus and Scriptures), and for a good portion of time lived in exclusive silence of solitude.
However, upon examining the biography of Anthony by St. Athanaseus and of other commentaries of this holy man's life, we discover details and realities as to the aspects of his hermit portion of life, and then of how God utilized him more as an abbot and monk rather than, per se, hermit. St. Anthony evolved as a religious solitary, as a hermit, and then more into the guidance and leadership aspects of a monk and leader of monks: an abbot. He evolved according to the Lord's will. This is what following the Lord's will and of dying to ourselves entails; we flow with God's plan for us, not knowing with human certainty what the next present moment may bring.
Thus, we generally do not find St. Anthony being called St. Anthony the Hermit. We Catholic hermits in the consecrated life of the Church and all the Christian hermits over the past 17 centuries, benefit and learn from St. Anthony. We discover much good as to Anthony's insights and inspirations of the Holy Spirit--of his holy desire and God's will and allowance. Like St. Anthony, we benefit not only from his eremitic life but also from other religious solitaries who have evolved in living eremitic life. These holy souls practiced what we call the eremitic vocation, yet remained open to the evolving nature of God's will for every uniquely and individually created human soul--and of that soul's life (hermit and otherwise).
As to Anthony, he desired as well as felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to remove himself further from the "world" both physically and spiritually. In order to discern and test that inner impartation, he departed for the desert--away from those who knew him in his locale--although he had been striving to that point increasingly, the silence of solitude, and had given up his possessions. In thus manner, Anthony spent several years--some indicate 20 years total--between his eremitic beginnings and evolving to that of a far more, austere solitude; and with the austerity within the increasing solitude, some might mistakenly view such extreme solitude and call it: isolation.
(Of course, "isolation" is strictly a temporal view or usage of the term, for Christians, even consecrated hermits, are never isolated no matter what; His Real Presence and all the holy ones who have gone before, are ever present with the hermit even if not recognizable by the external senses. We Christian, avowed and professed Catholic hermits are always and ever very much part of the Body of Christ. To use the term "isolation" as if some sort of negative or unhealthy "wrong" regarding the hermit life and vocation, may be a spiritually inexperienced connotation of "isolation" which denies the very reality of such hermits as living, eternal souls. We hermits are Christian persons, existing as part and parcel of all others living and deceased ,yet alive within the Consecrated life of the Church. We are Christian (and Catholic) hermits who exist immortal within the Body of Christ, and very much also part of the Family of Mankind.)
This brief biography best describes in clarity and continuity an overview of St. Anthony's life, lived between 251-356 A.D.) We can read for ourselves the reality of how Anthony discerned the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and made the decision to follow Christ in the way he did: becoming a hermit and evolving into increasing austerity. [Here note that no human, not hermit nor bishop, authorized or approved or designated Anthony as a hermit; only could or does the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity truly bless and consecrate such souls in their vocation/s.]
After those two approximate two decades of deepening hermit life, Anthony (God's will be done) then evolved into that of a teacher and leader of monks, later given the title of Abbot--and Patriarch of Monks--and considered to be an early founder of monasticism. And as we read in the following bibliographical commentary of his life, Anthony was in the last part of his life, called to return once more to that stricter separation from the world that is one of several marks of the eremitic vocation.
So it was that Anthony, much later in life, having been essentially called out of extreme solitude of hermit life to be abbot and guide of vast numbers of monks, St. Anthony again returned once more to the stricter separation from the world of monasticism, from leading and teaching and of being an abbot to those many who desired instruction in the spiritual life much as Anthony had desired years prior when beseeching the hermit he knew to teach him the spiritual life. Anthony returned to his eremitic life, and lived out his remaining years on earth as such, removed from others and in more austerity and asceticism, hidden from the eyes of men, and in praise of God and prayer for the world.
"St. Anthony was born in the year 251, in upper Egypt. Not long after his parents died, Anthony hearing at Mass the words, 'If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,' he gave away all his inherited possessions. He then begged an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life. [Note here that Anthony did not ask to be taught the hermit vocation, nor to receive approbation or authorization to be a hermit; he wanted to learn the spiritual life.] He also visited various solitaries, copying in himself the principal virtue of each.
"To serve God more perfectly, Anthony entered the desert and immured himself in a ruin, building up the door so that none could enter. Here the devils assaulted him most furiously, appearing as various monsters, and even wounding him severely; but his courage never failed, and he overcame them all by confidence in God and by the sign of the cross.
"One night, whilst Anthony was in his solitude, many devils scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend [was not at that point without friends checking in] found him thus, and believing him dead, carried him home. But when Anthony came to himself he persuaded his friend to carry him, in spite of his wounds, back 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 glory.
"His only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise.
"Many souls flocked to him for advice, and after twenty years of solitude, he consented to guide them in holiness--thus founding the first monastery. His numerous miracles attracted such multitudes that he fled again into solitude; where he lived by manual labor.
"He expired peacefully at a very advanced age. St. Athanasius, his biographer, says that the mere knowledge of how St. Anthony lived is a good guide to virtue."
God bless His Real Presence in us! Little children, let us love God in Himself and love others as God loves!
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