January 17th, is the feast day of St. Antony (or Anthony) the Great who lived from AD 251-356 in Egypt. Last week we began a series of articles on his life. Much of our information comes from the biography of Antony written about AD 360 by St. Athanasius of Alexandria.    Antony was born in Koma in Lower Egypt to wealthy landowner parents. His parents were faithful Christians, raising him to be the same. He had just one sibling, a younger sister.    Athanasius writes, “But when he was grown and arrived at boyhood, and was advancing in years, he could not endure to learn letters, not caring to associate with other boys; but all his desire was ... to live a plain man at home.” Though living at home, he was never idle. And although Antony never learned to read, he had a fantastic memory from what he heard orally, especially from the Bible. He regularly attended the Liturgy at “the Lord’s House” (church) with his parents, “attentive to what was read, keepin...

January 17th is the feast day of St. Antony (or Anthony) the Great, also called Antony of Egypt, Antony the Abbot, Antony of the Desert, Antony the Anchorite, Antony the Hermit, Antony of Thebes, and also known as the Father of All Monks. St. Antony was born on January 12, 251, in Koma, Egypt, then a province of the Roman Empire. He died, at age 105, on January 17, 356, at Mount Colzim, Egypt. About four years after St. Antony’s death, about AD 360, his contemporary Egyptian, St. Athanasius of Alexandria (AD 295/298-373), wrote a biography of Antony called “The Life of Antony.” It became one of best-known works of literature in Christian world, and remains in print even still today. The reading of “The Life of Antony” influenced the conversion of many, including St. Augustine of Hippo (ad 354-430), St. John Chrysostom (AD 354-407), and this writer. In future articles we will go into the details of St. Antony’s life, but first, let’s just get a bit of a flavor of who this Third...

Epiphany.       This Sunday, January 7th, we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord.  Epiphany means “manifestation,” and refers to the manifestation of God to His creatures – the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 528 ).   Although Epiphany had been celebrated earlier in some areas, since AD 376, the Church universal has celebrated on Epiphany three grand manifestations of the Divinity of Jesus: (1) the coming of the wise men (the three kings), the first Gentiles to adore the Infant God ( Mt. 2:11 ); (2) the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan where the voice of the Eternal Father proclaims Him as, “My Beloved Son” ( Mt. 3:17 , Mk.1:11 , Lk. 3:22 ); and (3) Jesus’ changing water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana, the first of Jesus’ signs which “manifested His glory” ( Jn. 2:11 ), His Divine power, His radiance of the God’s splendor ( Heb. 1:3 ).      ...