St. Anthony was born in Egypt around the year 251. At the age of twenty, his parents died and left all the family possessions in his care for the welfare of him and his sister. Around the same time, Anthony felt a call from God to dedicate his life to prayer. After a time of discernment, he sold all his excess possessions and donated the proceeds to the poor, keeping only enough wealth to sustain his life and to care for his younger sister. When this task was completed, he left his sister and her possessions in the care of a convent and set out to devote himself to God through a contemplative life.
Anthony retreated to the desert and built a small hermitage for himself. Word of his holiness and devotion to God soon spread, people began to seek him out for his advice and he also began to attract followers. At the age of fifty-five, Anthony built a monastery to house the followers and offered advice and direction to their efforts at union with God and prayer.
Anthony spent his whole life in devoted service to God. He founded several monasteries, aided St. Athanasius in battling the Arian heresy, and did physical battle with the devil. After his death at the age of 105, Anthony became called the "Patriarch of Monks" and a devotion developed invoking his aid against skin diseases.
When Anthony was about eighteen or twenty years old, his parents died. Not six months after his parents' death, as he was on his way to church for his usual visit, he began to think of how the apostles had left everything and followed the Savior, and also of those mentioned in the book of Acts who had sold their possessions and brought the apostles money for distribution to the needy. This was all in his mind when, entering the church just as the Gospel was being read, he head the Lord's words to the rich man: "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor - you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me."
It seemed to Anthony that it was God who had brought the saints to his mind, and that the words of the Gospel had been spoken directly to him. Immediately he left the church, and gave away to the villagers all the property he inherited, about 200 acres of very beautiful and fertile land. He sold all his other possessions, as well, giving to the poor the considerable sum of money he collected. However, to care for his sister he retained a few things.
He gave himself up to the ascetic life, not far from his own home. He did manual work because he had heard the words: "If anyone will not work, do not let him eat." He spent some of his earnings on bread and the rest he gave to the poor.
Seeing the kind of life he lived, the villagers and all the good men he knew called him the friend of God, and they loved him as a son and brother.
from the Life of Saint Anthony by Saint Athanasius