St. Anthony the Great
Patron of monks, hermits, basket makers, gravediggers, skin diseases
Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 251–356) is the father of Christian monasticism. Born to wealthy Coptic parents, he heard the Gospel command to sell all and follow Christ, gave his patrimony to the poor, and withdrew first to a tomb and finally to the desert of Mount Colzim, where he lived for more than seventy years. Athanasius's Life of Anthony made him the patron of every hermit and the most imitated saint of late antiquity. His famous combats with demons inspired centuries of Western art and became the very image of spiritual warfare. Disciples gathered in such numbers that the desert, as Athanasius wrote, 'was made a city by monks.'