Vita Antonii
The Vita Antonii (abbreviated: VA ) is a hagiographic writing about the life of the desert father Antonius , which was written by Athanasios , Bishop of Alexandria, around 360 .
content
Antonius, an uneducated Egyptian farmer from a wealthy Christian family, was aroused at the age of twenty by a sermon about the rich young man ( Mt 19.16ff EU ). He takes the parable seriously and gives away everything he has and lives a strictly ascetic life on the outskirts of the village . When that is not enough for him, he goes to the place where the demons reside - namely the desert - to fight them. The demons appear in person and torment his body, but they cannot harm his spirit. Antonius emerges victorious from the battles and then gives a very long, rhetorically polished speech to people who want to follow his example.
After the test Antonius goes twice to Alexandria , the first time to go to the martyrs to be what he is not granted, the second time to hold a glowing speech against the heretics, the for him Arians , Meletians and Neoplatonists were . He also heals the possessed and the sick more casually.
In his hermitage, Antonius maintained correspondence with Emperor Constantine and founded two monasteries during his lifetime . When he became aware of his approaching death, he gave a warning speech to his successors. His death is mystified on the basis of the death of Moses , his tomb should remain unknown.
In order to classify the Vita as historical testimony to Antonius, it must be remembered that the author Athanasius was a bishop in Alexandria in the 4th century who worked with the socially powerful and wrote the work to spread the fame of the Egyptian monks in other countries .
Reception history
The Vita Antonii was translated into Latin by Euagrios of Antioch in 373 and thus made accessible to the Western public. The best-known reader of the Vita Antonii at the time was Augustine of Hippo , who was inspired to his own conversion by reading it. In the entire history of art and culture, it should also be the Vita Antonii that decisively determined the image of Antonius. The sayings of Antonius, which can be found in the Apophthegmata Patrum , or the letters of Antonius were hardly taken into account.
See also : Reception of the Vita Antonii in art and literature
literature
- Athanasius: Life of Saint Anthony. Translated from the Greek by Hans Mertel. In: Athanasius: Against the Gentiles (= Writings selected by Saint Athanasius Alexandrinus. Vol. 2 = Library of the Church Fathers . Vol. 31). Volume 31. Kösel, Kempten / Munich 1917, separate count.
- J. Roldanus: The Vita Antonii as a mirror of the theology of Athanasius and its continued work into the 5th century. In: Theology and Philosophy. 58, 1983, ISSN 0040-5655 , pp. 194-216.
- Athanasius: Vita Antonii. Edited and provided with an introduction by Adolf Gottfried [d. i. Adolf Laminski]. Translated by Heinrich Przybilla. St. Benno Verlag, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7462-0054-7 (also: Verlag Styria, Graz 1987, ISBN 3-222-11769-1 ).
- Pascal Henricus Elisabeth Bertrand: The Evagrius translation of the Vita Antonii. Reception - Tradition - Edition. With special consideration of the Vitas Patrum tradition. Utrecht 2005, ( online version ).
Web links
(The Vita Antonii is explicitly discussed in this article .)
(Medical attempt to explain the temptations of Antonius described in the VA)
References
- ↑ Vita Antonii , Chapter 12f., 51ff.
- ↑ Chapters 16–43.
- ↑ Persecution under Maximinus , Chapter 46.
- ↑ Chapter 69ff.
- ↑ Chapters 57ff., 63f., 71.
- ↑ Chapter 81.
- ↑ Chapter 14.
- ^ Siegfried G. Richter : The Coptic Egypt. Treasures in the shadow of the pharaohs (with photos by Jo Bischof). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-8053-5211-6 , pp. 56–63.
- ↑ Augustine: Confessions , VIII, 6, 14-16.