Commemorating St. Anthony the Great Jan. 30/17

 

MONASTERY OF SAINT ANTHONY IN EGYPT. CAVE OF ANTONY THE GREAT.

The monastery of St. Anthony is located near the town of Zaafran, 45 kilometers from the Red Sea coast. Currently, the monastery of St. Anthony the Great belongs to the Coptic Church. The monastery is located at the foot of a mountain range, which rises several hundred meters above it. The monastery is surrounded by two walls. internal,a higher wall (up to ten meters), was partly built back in the VI century under Emperor Justinian, and surrounds the ancient territory of the monastery, reminiscent of a flowering oasis. The outer wall appeared only a few years ago. Approaching the gate, you can see the ancient entrance - instead of the gate, a basket or a rope descended from the tower, on which visitors were lifted to the monastery wall. This way of entering the monastery was arranged because of the danger of attacks by robbers. In our time, gates have been made in the monastery wall.

The first temple located outside the monastery walls is the Church of St. Anthony the Great and Paul of Thebes, built at the beginning of the 20th century, it is easy to notice by the two twin bell towers standing next to each other. Behind this temple and to the left of it is the monastery garden of date palms, reminiscent of the fact that, having come here, the Monk Anthony found several such palms. In the depths of the garden is the church of Mark the Ascetic (a Coptic saint of the 14th century) with twelve spherical domes. The monks of the monastery are trying to keep the life of the monastery in the form it was in antiquity, for example, preserved wooden locks-latches on the doors.

The most ancient temple of the monastery is the church of St. Anthony the Great, built in the 4th century shortly after the death of the saint. Initially, it was consecrated in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos. The monastery believes that the relics of St. Anthony still rest in this temple, under the steps of the southern part of the salt.
The most ancient murals preserved in the monastery date back to the 7th-8th centuries. The monastery also has an ancient library, which includes 1700 handwritten manuscripts.
In the southern part of the monastery, adjacent to Mount Al-Kolzom, there is a spring of St. Anthony, which flows from a crevice in the mountain and produces approximately one hundred cubic meters of water per day. Currently, it is fenced off with a net, and for those who wish to draw water from it, a pipe with a tap has been allocated.

In the monastery there is an exposition of monastic life of the 4th-6th centuries. An olive press, a 9th-century mill, vessels for storing supplies, a monastic refectory of the 6th century are presented, the table and benches of which are carved from stone (it is noteworthy that at the end of the table there is an elevation in the form of an open book, on which the monks read the lives of the saints or teachings during meals).
For almost one thousand seven hundred years, this one of the most ancient monasteries of the Christian world has been standing on the land of ancient Egypt, being a visible witness to those distant times that we read about in the patericons and the lives of the venerable fathers. The course of history has led to the fact that the monastery of St. Anthony is not now among the Orthodox monasteries, but the image of Christian life, the founder of which was the Monk Anthony the Great, has not been lost for centuries, becoming an example for many of his followers who are looking for spiritual perfection.

The CAVE of St. Anthony, in which he labored for the last forty odd years of his life, is undoubtedly the true treasure of the monastery. It is located about an hour's walk from the monastery itself. A staircase leads to the cave, located at a height of three hundred meters above the monastery. Although there are poisonous snakes in the desert, the monks affirm that, through the prayers of the monk, the snakes in the monastery and its environs do not sting.
Above the entrance to the cave, a sheer cliff rises for tens of meters. The cave has a long and narrow entrance, about ten meters long. Over the centuries, thousands of pilgrims who passed here smoothed the walls.

Before entering the cave, according to the Eastern custom of respect for holy places, one takes off one's shoes. Passing, or, more precisely, squeezing through this passage, you find yourself in that part of the cave where the Monk Anthony lived, being in unceasing prayer and struggling with the spirits of malice. In this part of the cave, the floor level is lower than in the passage, and therefore, after passing through the cave corridor, you need to turn right and go down a few steps (about a meter). The cave is dark, which is especially felt after bright daylight. After some time, the eyes get used to the darkness, in addition, a little light enters through the opening of the passage. The room is very small, it is already cramped for seven pilgrims. The length of the cave is seven meters, the width is two, but the floor is narrow, no more than a meter in the widest part. There is a throne in the cave here sometimes the hieromonks of the monastery of St. Anthony celebrate the Liturgy. Behind the altar there is a niche where there is an alabaster dais, on which Saint Anthony bowed his head during a short sleep. Here lies a pile of notes left by Coptic pilgrims with prayer petitions to the reverend.

Leaving the cave, you find yourself on a platform from which you can see the desert below and the mountain range lying ahead. To the right and slightly above the entrance to the large cave is another, small one, in which St. Anthony also lived. It is so small that you can only sit or lie down in it, and besides, it is rather difficult to climb up to it along a sheer cliff.