The Monk Anthony the Roman
Commemorated on January 17, August 3
The Monk Anthony
the Roman was born at Rome in the year 1067 of rich parents, keeping to the
Orthodox confession of faith, and he was raised by them in piety. As an orphan
having lost his parents at age 17, he took up the study of the fathers in the
Greek language. Afterwards he distributed part of his inheritance to the poor,
and the other portion he put into a wooden box and threw it into the sea. And
then he took monastic vows at one of the wilderness skete-monasteries, where he
lived for 20 years. A persecution of the Latins against the Orthodox forced the
brethren to separate. The Monk Anthony wandered about, going from place to
place, until he came upon a large rock upon the solitary shore of the sea,
where he lived for a whole year in fasting and prayer. A terrible storm,
happening on 5 September 1105, tore away the stone on which the Monk Anthony
was situated, and threw him into the sea. On the Feast of the Nativity of the
Most Holy Mother of God the stone halted 3 versts from Novgorod on the banks of
the River Volkhov near the village of Volkhovsk. This event is testified to in
the Novgorod Chronicles. At this place the monk, with the blessing of Sainted
Nikita the Hermit (+ 1109, Comm. 14 May), founded a monastery in honour of
the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. In another year fishermen fished
out the box with the inheritance of the Monk Anthony, cast into the sea many
years before. Having declared what was in the box, the monk took the box and
bought land for the monastery. Spiritual asceticism was combined at the
monastery with intense physical work.
The Monk Anthony was
concerned, that from the monastery income help should be rendered for the
needy, and for orphans and widows. In the year 1117 the monk began construction
with stone at the monastery. Up until our own day there has been preserved a
cathedral in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God – built
during the lifetime of the monk in the years 1117-1119 by the reknown Novgorod
architect Peter, and with wall-frescoes in the year 1125. In the year 1131
Sainted Niphont of Novgorod made the Monk Anthony hegumen of the monastery. He
died on 3 August 1147 and was buried by Sainted Niphont.
The Monk Anthony was
glorified in the year 1597. His memory is noted likewise (in honour of the
uncovering of the relics) on the first Friday after the feastday of the
First-Ranked Apostles Peter and Paul (29 June), and on 17 January – on the
same name‑day when the memory of the Monk Anthony the Great is
celebrated. The first life of the Monk Anthony the Roman was written soon after
his death by his student and successor as hegumen – the priestmonk Andrei. A
collected life, with an account about the uncovering of the relics and
praiseworthy discourse, was done by a novice of the Antoniev monastery, the
monk Niphont, in the year 1598.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
