Primary source · Koine Greek
The Life of Antony (Vita Antonii)
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. AD 357
What this text is
The book that invented monastic biography — Antony's call, his wars with demons, his emergence 'as from a shrine, initiated into mysteries' — read in Latin within a decade and instrumental in Augustine's conversion.
Profile of Anthony the Great →
Public-domain translations
A. Robertson (NPNF, 1892)
Antony, as from a shrine, came forth initiated in the mysteries and filled with the Spirit of God… He persuaded many to embrace the solitary life; and so from that time there were monasteries in the mountains, and the desert was made a city by monks.
Manuscript witnesses
Greek tradition (c. 165 manuscripts)
10th c. onwardOne of the most copied Greek lives; two ancient Latin versions carried it west within a decade.
Evagrius of Antioch's Latin version
c. AD 370 (medieval copies)The polished Latin that Augustine's circle read at Milan (Conf. VIII).
Patrologia Graeca, vol. 26 (Migne)
1857Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Egypt, c. AD 356–362 — the charter of monastic biography
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Athanase d'Alexandrie: Vie d'Antoine (SC 400)G. J. M. Bartelink, 1994The critical edition with French translation.
- Athanasius: The Life of Antony (CWS / PPS)Robert C. Gregg (tr.), 1980Standard faithful English.