Sorry about missing yesterday, got tied up with work. So, today we're taking out of the country to Bulgaria, where they celebrate Antonovden (St. Antony`s Day). For those that have issues with religion, perhaps reading further would not be a good idea, however, you learn a lot of a group of people by what they consider reverent.

St. Anthony of Egypt

The life of Anthony will remind many people of St. Francis of Assisi.
At 20, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message, “Go, sell what you
have, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b), that he actually did just
that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that
most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world
completely covered with snares, and gave the Church and the world the
witness of solitary asceticism, great personal mortification and
prayer. But no saint is antisocial, and Anthony drew many people to
himself for spiritual healing and guidance.

At
54, he responded to many requests and founded a sort of monastery of
scattered cells. Again like Francis, he had great fear of “stately
buildings and well-laden tables.”

At 60, he hoped to be a martyr
in the renewed Roman persecution of 311, fearlessly exposing himself to
danger while giving moral and material support to those in prison. At
88, he was fighting the Arian heresy, that massive trauma from which it
took the Church centuries to recover. “The mule kicking over the altar”
denied the divinity of Christ.

Anthony is associated in art with
a T-shaped cross, a pig and a book. The pig and the cross are symbols
of his valiant warfare with the devil—the cross his constant means of
power over evil spirits, the pig a symbol of the devil himself. The
book recalls his preference for “the book of nature” over the printed
word. Anthony died in solitude at 105.