St. Anthony and St. Paul

St. Anthony (depicted on the right), was born to Christian parents around the year 250 A.D.. His dad passed away at a young age and left many riches in the saint’s inheritance. One day, while attending church services, he heard one of the deacons reading from the Holy Bible. “If you want to be ‘perfect’, go sell all you have, give to the poor and come follow me” (Matthew 19:21). St. Anthony considered every word he heard as directed to him personally. He sold about  300 acres of  fertile  land, gave most of the  money to the poor, keeping only a little for  his sister.  He went into the desert to live a life of solitude and prayer.  Saint Anthony spent eighty-five years in the solitary desert before departing in the year 356 A.D.  Orthodox Chrisians refer to him as the “Father of Monasticism” because he was among the first to have left everything, in order to live in solitude with God.

May his holy blessings be with us all amen.

St Paul (depicted on the left) was born in 228 A.D. His father had died and left behind his inheritance to be split between the Saint and his brother. They argued much on how to split the wealth. The brothers were going to the governor to judge between them and as they were going, they saw a funeral procession. Paul asked about the deceased man and was told that he was one of the rich people of the city who left his riches and his wealth behind, and that they were taking him to bury him with only his garment. After hearing this, Paul left all of the money to his brother and left the city. After a great deal of travel, St Paul stumbled upon a cave with a palm tree and a stream. The palm tree provided him with food and for clothing he wove a tunic of palm branches, which he wore for several years. A raven would come to him daily with half of a loaf of bread to satisfy the Saint’s hunger. St Paul would live in that cave for a great period of time until he was over 100 years old. St. Paul departed in the year 340 A.D. When St. Anthony had come to bury the departed saint, two lions approached the body and dug a hole in the ground for St. Antony to bury him. Orthodox Christians refer to him as St. Paul the Hermit as he is known to be the first Christian hermit.

May his holy blessings be with us all amen.