Antony and the First Anchorites

The beginnings of the anchoritic desert: St. Antony the Great and the Life by Athanasius that made him the pattern of the monk (deferred in full to St. Antony’s own collection), and the great semi-eremitic colonies of Nitria and Kellia that grew up north of Scetis — their fathers, their character, and the Origenist controversy that scattered them.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Egyptian desert monasticism)

This section treats the first generation of the anchoritic movement and its northern centers. The first file, saint-antony-and-the-birth-of-monasticism.md, treats Antony’s place as the archetype and the enormous influence of Athanasius’ Life of Antony, deferring the biography itself to St. Antony the Great and dwelling instead on the desert as the arena of spiritual warfare. The second file, the-fathers-of-nitria-and-kellia.md, treats the settlements Amoun founded — the crowded, half-urban Nitria and the remoter Kellia — their intellectual, Origenist strand (Evagrius, the Tall Brothers), and the controversy of 399–400 that drove the Origenist monks into exile.

Contents

File Description
saint-antony-and-the-birth-of-monasticism.md Antony as archetype; the Life of Antony and its influence; the desert as the arena of spiritual warfare (biography deferred)
the-fathers-of-nitria-and-kellia.md Amoun, Nitria, and Kellia; the Tall Brothers and Evagrius; the Origenist controversy that scattered them

See Also