Western Civilization I / Unit 8 WC1 0717 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Antony, the Stylites, and the Monastery
Captions available
The idea
About two eighty Antony sold his goods for the Egyptian desert to imitate Christ's poverty; Athanasius's Life of Antony drew thousands. Anchorites lived as hermits; Simeon stood thirty years on a Syrian pillar; then communities formed, monasteries, adding useful work to prayer.
In practice
The Stylites, pillar saints, as the extreme case.
Where people slip
Monasticism began as flight from the Church's worldliness, not as its arm.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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