St. Antony performed the visitation of his monks a little before his death, which he foretold them with his last instructions, but no tears could move him to die among them. It appears from St. Athanasius, that the Christians had learned from the pagans their custom of embalming the bodies of the dead, which abuse, as proceeding from vanity and sometimes superstition, St. Antony had often condemned: this he would prevent, and ordered that his body should be buried in the earth, as the patriarchs were, and privately, on his mountain, by his two disciples Diacarius and Amathas, who had remained with him the last fifteen years, to serve him in his remote cell in his old age. He hastened back to that solitude, and some time after fell sick: he repeated to these two disciples his orders for their burying his body secretly in that place, adding; "In the day of the resurrection, I shall receive it incorruptible from the hand of Christ." He ordered them to give one of his sheep-skins, with a cloak[28] in which he lay, to the bishop Athanasius, as a public testimony of his being united in faith and communion with that holy prelate; to give his other sheep-skin to the bishop Serapion; and to keep for themselves his sackcloth. He added; "Farewell, my children, Antony is departing, and will be no longer with you." At these words they embraced him, and he, stretching out his feet, without any other sign calmly ceased to breathe. His death happened in the year 355, probably on the 17th of January, on which the most ancient Martyrologies name him, and which the Greek empire kept as a holyday soon after his death. He was one hundred and five years old. From his youth to that extreme old age, he always maintained the same fervor in his holy exercises: age to the last never made him change his diet (except in the use of a little oil) nor his manner of clothing; yet he lived without sickness, his sight was not impaired, his teeth were only worn, and not one was lost or loosened. The two disciples interred him according to his directions. About the year 561, his body[29] was discovered, in the reign of Justinian, and with great solemnity translated to Alexandria, thence it was removed to Constantinople, and is now at Vienne in France. Bollandus gives us an account of many miracles wrought by his intercession; particularly in what manner the distemper called the Sacred Fire, since that time St. Antony's Fire, miraculously ceased through his patronage, when it raged violently in many parts of Europe, in the eleventh century.
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A most sublime gift of heavenly contemplation and prayer was the fruit of this great saint's holy retirement. Whole nights seemed to him short in those exercises, and when the rising sun in the morning seemed to him too soon to call him from his knees to his manual labor, or other employments, he would lament that the incomparable sweetness which he enjoyed, in the more perfect freedom with which his heart was taken up in heavenly contemplation in the silent watching of the night, should be interrupted or abated. But the foundation of his most ardent charity, and that sublime contemplation by which his soul soared in noble and lofty flights above all earthly things, was laid in the purity and disengagement of his affections, the contempt of the world, a most profound humility, and the universal mortification of his senses and of the powers of his soul. Hence flowed that constant tranquillity and serenity of his mind, which was the best proof of a perfect mastery of his passions. St. Athanasius observes of him, that after thirty years spent in the closest solitude, "he appeared not to others with a sullen or savage, but with a most obliging sociable air."[30] A heart that is filled with inward peace, simplicity, goodness, and charity, is a stranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian mortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends being the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases the sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with an invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of duty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective which betrays us into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose, or peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a nearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of the temper of devils.
Footnotes:
1. St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he
lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived
alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his
hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when
St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never
applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein],
fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems
to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned;
for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same
manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a
certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could
employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the
saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23,
Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.)
Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no
alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only
by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t.
3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119,
§64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666.
2. Matt. xix. 21.
3. An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini.
Fleury, l. 8, p. 418.
4. Ibid. vi. 34.
5. [Greek: Parthenôn], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed.
Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when
she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek:
hathêgoumenên allôs parthenôn], n. 54. p. 837.
6. Orig. lib. 5, p. 264.
7. His first monastery was situated near the confines of Upper and
Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit
some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p.
461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with
crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river,
and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more
ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St.
Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it
was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were
extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts,
the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others,
frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public,
and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up
the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a
little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by,
he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went
with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days,
doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red
Sea, where he spent the latter years of his life; yet he frequently
visited his first monastery, near Aphroditopolis. St. Hilarion going
from this latter to St. Antony's great monastery on the mountain,
performed that journey in three days, on camels, which a deacon,
named Baisan, let to those who desired to visit St. Antony. This
latter, near which the saint died, always continued a famous
pilgrimage.
Pispir was the monastery of St. Macarius, but is sometimes called St. Antony's, who often visited it. This was situated on the Nile, in Thebais, thirty measures or [Greek: sêmeia] from St. Antony's mountain, according to Palladius, (Laus. c. 63.) This some understand of Roman miles, others of Egyptian schæni of thirty furlongs each; thirty schæni are nine hundred stadia, or one hundred and thirteen miles. Pispir therefore seems not to have been very far from Aphroditopolis. See Kocher, (comment. In fastos Abyssinorum,) in the journal of Bern, ad an. 1761, t. 1, p. 160 and 169.
A monastery, of which St. Antony is titular saint, still subsists a little above the ancient city of Aphroditon on the Nile. It is now called Der-mar-Antinious-el-Bahr, that is, The monastery of Antony at the river. See Pocock, p. 70, and the map prefixed to that part of his travels. Travelling from hence one day's journey up the river, then turning from the south towards the east, over sandy deserts, and a chain of high mountains, in which springs of water, in other parts very rare, are here and there found, and camels travel for one hundred miles, we arrive at St. Antony's great monastery, about six or seven hours journey from the Red Sea. See Pocock, ib. p. 128. Granger, Relation du Voyage, &c., p. 107. Nouv. Memoires des Missions, t. 5, p. 136. Vanslebius, Nouv. Relat. pp. 299 and 309; and Maillet. Descr. de 'Egypte, p. 320. The Grotto of St. Paul is shown not very far from this great monastery; yet the road wing [sic] round the mountains, and a great way about it, seems to travellers as a great distance from it. 8. St. Athan. Vit. Anton. n. 45, p. 830. 9. P. 814. 10. P. 823, ed. Ben. 11. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 129. Cotelier, &c. 12. S. Nilus, ep. 24. Cotelier, Apoth. Patr. p. 340. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 105, l. 5, c. 7. 13. Cassian, Collat. c. 31. 14. S. Athan. n. 82, p. 857. S. Chrys. Hom. 8, in Matt. S. Hier. ep. {}6. Sozom. l. 6, c. 5. 15. S. Athan. n. 68, 69, p. 847. 16. Ibid. n. 85. p. 859. 17. Ibid. n. 80, p. 855. 18. N. 77, p. 858. 19. N. 86, p. 860. 20. Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. 4, p. 26. See S. Antonii. M. Epistolæ 20. curâ Abr. Eckellens. Paris, 1641. But only the above-mentioned seven letters can be regarded as genuine, except the discourses preserved by St. Athanasius in his life. 21. Ep. 2, ad Arsinoitas. 22. Ib. 23. Maij. t. 3, p. 355. 24. That under his name in Abraham Eckellensis is not of so high a pedigree. A large body of the monks of St. Basil in the East, since the seventh century, take the name of the Order of St. Antony, but retain the rule of St. Basil, comprised in his ascetic writings; and observe the same fasts, and other exercises, with all the other monks of the East, who are called of the order of St. Basil; which even the Maronites follow; though Tillemont denies it by mistake. 25. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 8. Abr. Eckellens. in Vit. S. Ant. p. 106. Cotel. p. 344. Mart. Coptor. 26. S. Athan. n. 55, p. 858. 27. N. 16 & 43. 28. The Ependytes of St. Antony, mentioned by St. Athanasius, n. 46, p. 831, has much embarrassed the critics: it seems to have been a cloak of white wool. It is clear, from St. Athanasius, that St. Antony's inner garment was a hair-cloth, over which he wore a cloak made of sheep-skin. 29. This translation of his relics to Alexandria, though doubted of by some Protestants, is incontestably confirmed by Victor of Tunone, (Chron. p. 11, in Scalig. Thesauro,) who lived then in banishment at Canope, only twelve miles from Alexandria; also, by St. Isidore of Seville, in the same age, Bede. Usuard, &c. They were removed to Constantinople when the Saracens made themselves masters of Egypt, about the year 635. (pee Bollandus, pp. 162, 1134.) They were brought to Vienne in Dauphine, by Joselin, a nobleman of that country, whom the emperor of Constantinople had gratified with that rich present, about the year 1070. These relics were deposited in the church of La Motte S. Didier, not far from Vienne, then a Benedictin priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Arles, but now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Antony. In 1089, a pestilential erysipelas distemper, called the Sacred Fire, swept off great numbers in most provinces of France; public prayers and processions were ordered against this scourge; at length it pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful distemper, to those who implored his mercy trough the intercession of St. Antony, especially before his relics; the church in which they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers of pilgrims, and his patronage was implored over the whole kingdom against this disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named Gaston, and his son Girond, devoted themselves and their estate to found and serve an hospital near this priory, for the benefit of the poor that were afflicted with this distemper: seven others joined them in their charitable attendance on the sick, whence a confraternity of laymen who served this hospital took its rise, and continued till Boniface VIII. converted the Benedictin priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on those hospitaller brothers, and giving them the religious rule of regular canons of St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new order, called Regular Canons of St. Antony. An abbey in Paris, which belongs to this order, is called Little St. Antony's, by which name it is distinguished from the great Cistercian nunnery of St. Antony. The general or abbot of St. Antony's, in Viennois, enjoys a yearly revenue of about forty thousand livres according to Piganiol, Descr. de la Fr. t. 4, p. 249, and Dom Beaunier, Rec. Abbayes de Fr. p. 982. The superiors of other houses of this order retain the name of commanders, and the houses are called commaranderies, as when they were hospitallers; so that the general is the only abbot. See Bollandus, Beaunict, F. Longueval, Hist. de l'Eglise de France, l. 22, t. 8, p. 16, and Drouet, in the late edition of Moreri's Hist. Diction V Antoine, from memoirs communicated by M. Bordet, superior of the convent of this order at Paris. 30. S. Athan. n. 67, p. 847, & n. 73, p. 850.
SS. SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, AND MELEUSIPPUS,
MARTYRS.
THEY were three twin brothers, who, with Leonilla their grandmother, glorified God by an illustrious martyrdom in Cappadocia, probably in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The most ancient acts of their martyrdom, published by Rosweide and Bollandus, place it in that country, and their relics were brought from the East to Langres in France, while the first race of French kings filled the throne. A copy of the acts of their martyrdom, which was sent from Langres by one Varnahair, to St. Ceraunus, bishop of Paris, in the beginning of the seventh century, by an evident mistake or falsification, affirms their martyrdom to have happened at Langres; by which false edition, Ado, and many others, were led into the same mistake. From certain ancient writings kept at Langres, mentioned by Gualtherot in his Anastasius of Langres, Chatelain proves that these relics, with the head of St. Mammes, a martyr, also of Cappadocia, were given by the emperor Zeno to a nobleman of Langres, who had served him in his wars. By him this sacred treasure was deposited in the church of Langres, in the time of the bishop Aprunculus, in 490, to be a protection against devils. The cathedral of Langres, which bears the title of Saint Mammes, is possessed of the head of that martyr in a rich shrine. A brass tomb before the high altar, is said to have contained the bodies of the three children who were thrown into the furnace at Babylon, mentioned in the book of Daniel: but Chatelain thinks it belonged to the three martyrs whose bodies were given by the emperor Zeno to the count of Langres. The church called of St. {173} Geome, or Sancti Gemini, that is, the twins, situated two miles from Langres, belongs to a priory of regular canons, and is famous out of devotion to those saints, though great part of their relics was translated by Hariolf, duke of Burgundy, and his brother Erlolf, bishop of Langres, into Suabia, and remains in the noble collegiate church of St. Guy, or St. Vitus, at El{}ange. These holy martyrs are secondary patrons of the diocese of Langres, and titular saints of many churches in France and Germany. See Chatelain Notes on Jan. 17, p. 313.