From the Archive: Life of St. Anthony (Full)

Catholic Culture Audiobooks presents a 6-part series of St. Athanasius’ famous biography of St. Anthony. Listen to the entirety of Athanasius’ Life of St. Anthony without interruption.

You may already be familiar, from its countless iterations 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 enjoy this reading and would like hear more, 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/

Catholic Culture Podcast 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

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.