Today's saintly drama revolves around Egypt. As in "Who will emerge victorious in the holy battle for Egyptian domination." Antony (don't call me Anthony or even Tony for that matter) of Egypt takes on Mary (you can just call me Mary) of Egypt. These two have a lot in common both being hermits and spending much spiritual energy on resisting temptation. Nonetheless, only one will seize the title "Pharaoh of Lent Madness" and make it to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen to square off against Basil the Great.
In yesterday's matchup Anna Cooper bested (upset?) Joseph of Arimathea 60% to 40% which is unfortunate since Joseph already gave away his burial plot.
And if you missed yesterday's exhilarating edition of Monday Madness click here to see Tim and Scott hold forth on all things Lent Madness. As usual it's epic and compelling with high production values.
Antony of Egypt
Antony was born in about 251 to wealthy Christian parents in Middle Egypt. When he was not yet twenty years old, his parents died and left their large estate and his young sister to his care. Shortly thereafter, Antony was convicted by Jesus’ words to the rich man to sell everything and give the money to the poor. Antony parceled out his land, giving it away to his neighbors, and sold all his family’s belongings. He gave the money to those who were poor around him, keeping a small portion to provide for him and his sister. A short while later, he heard the gospel command to not worry about tomorrow. He promptly gave away what remained of his money, put his sister in a house of virgins, and took up a life of solitude.
Antony moved to an old tomb and survived on only bread and water, never eating or drinking before sunset, and often fasting for days in between. During this time, he wrestled with demons that assaulted him for his wealth and tempted him with lustful thoughts. He was successful in his resistance, being assured in a vision from God that he had won the victory. Encouraged by this vision, Antony moved further out into the desert.
Antony lived alone for over twenty years. Although he was drawn to the life of a hermit and constantly tried to retreat further into the wilderness, he eventually acquired some renown, and pious men sought to imitate him. Eventually, a sort of monastery was formed, a community of disciples attracted to his lifestyle. The monastery of Saint Antony the Great now stands at that site.
In 311, when the emperor Maximinus began persecuting Christians, Antony went to Alexandria hoping to be martyred. He publicly wore his white habit—the sign of a Christian monastic—and visited Christians in prison and labor camps and testified on their behalf before tribunals. He did not, however, try to impugn himself. In 312, when the persecution ebbed, Antony again returned to the desert and, alone in his cell, committed to become what Saint Athanasius called “a daily martyr to his conscience, ever fighting the battles of faith.” In his old age, Antony participated in the Arian controversy alongside his friend and biographer, Bishop Athanasius. This doctrinal debate claimed that Jesus was subordinate and distinct from God. In 355, Antony was invited to Alexandria to debate the Arians, many of whom were convinced by his arguments and changed their thinking. After the debates, he returned to the desert where he died in 356 at the ripe old age of 105.
Collect for Saint Antony of Egypt
O God, by your Holy Spirit you enabled your servant Antony to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil: Give us grace, with pure hearts and minds, to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- David Creech
Mary of Egypt
Mary of Egypt is recognized as the patron saint of penitents. This is because of her conversion from life as a sex addict to that of a desert hermit. Her life story or Vita, reportedly first told by Mary to a monk, was later put in writing by Saint Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638).
Born in the fourth century in an unknown region of Egypt, Mary ran away to the city of Alexandria at the age of twelve. As a young woman in Alexandria, she lived a life her biographer labeled as public prostitution. Reportedly she often refused payment for sexual acts because of her insatiable desire and instead subsisted mostly by begging and handiwork. Around the age of thirty, she traveled to Jerusalem with a group of pilgrims, hoping to find new sexual partners in the crowds. There she pursued gratification of her desires for a short time. Then, her life changed when she tried to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place where Jesus was crucified. But she was unable to pass through the door due to an invisible force.
At this strange occurrence, Mary had an epiphany of sorts and was filled with remorse for her sexual sins. At the sight of an icon of the Virgin Mary, she prayed for forgiveness and renounced her worldly ways. Finding new freedom from her previously insatiable desires, she was able to enter the church. Inside, a voice guided her into the desert. She obeyed, journeying to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist to receive absolution and Holy Communion. Then she crossed the Jordan to live in the desert as a hermit in penitence. She is often depicted in iconography with three loaves of bread, the only food she took into the desert. Once she ate them, she lived off what she could forage in the wilderness.
She lived alone in the desert for forty-seven years, until she met a monk named Zosimus, and told him the story of her life. He agreed to bring her communion on Maundy Thursday of the following year. She appeared to him on the opposite bank of the Jordan River, made the sign of the cross, and walked across the water to receive the body and blood of Christ. She asked him to meet her again one year later, at which time he found her corpse. An inscription told him that she had died shortly after his first visit, though her body was preserved. With the help of a lion, Zosimas dug a grave and buried her. When asked if this was true, Zosimas said, “I’m not lion about any of this!”
Collect for Mary of Egypt
Almighty God, in the early life of Mary, you give us an example of how our incarnate bodies can be sources of both pleasure and destruction. Make us aware of your never-failing love and forgiveness, that we, like her, might love and serve you in body, mind, and spirit. Through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
(Collect written by Nancy Hopkins-Greene.)
Vote!
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288 comments on “Antony of Egypt vs. Mary of Egypt”
On behalf of my fourth graders, I am casting their vote for Antony -- though he won their favor by only one vote. Note to self: Read the LM profiles BEFORE reading them aloud to the class, and you will not find the words "sex addict" staring you in the face. Long pause while I translate in my head. Sensing that I was pausing because there was something I didn't want them to hear (correct), they protested, "Come on! We can take it! We're old! . . . Nine and ten!" Personally, I love the saints that are less than perfect "the whole of their good lives through," but I have to cast the vote of my constituents 🙂
Mary's story sounds like a whole lot of prurient projection. It's more likely she was abused at home and ran away only to be recruited into prostitution. I imagine her being dragged off to Jerusalem by her pimp for bigger profits and deciding that she'd rather starve to death in the desert and be with her God than be a slave any longer. Alas this is still the choice faced by countless women and girls today.
I know there are lots of reasons to take this seriously, but I have been driving children endlessly, grocery shopping, checking on homework. As a mother of three, the idea of moving from sex addict to hermit was just so appealing. I have to vote for Mary, because I could not stop laughing. Clearly she is still performing miracles, because there was no way I was going to laugh amidst the bills, laundry, and kids tonight!
We teach our SS kids and families to share highs and lows everyday as a way to stay in touch. What's the best thing that happened today and what's the worst? It's a relative thing, there has to be an answer or you miss the point of communicating. We have been faced with tough choices throughout the 'games'. I hope those throwing in the towel on voting today will reconsider and keep the spirit.
where's the "like" button for the above comment?
Did Anthony's sister WANT to be placed in a house of virgins? Sounds pretty dull to me. Give me the woman who's lived a life!
She was a little girl. She grew up in a feminist commune. Don't know how dull that would have been.
Yes, not voting is just sad.
Perhaps you could "draw lots" or roll dice. There is definitely precedence for those ways of decision-making in the Bible! :^)
Love it! Well said!
Sylvia---Your retelling makes the most sense of all I have read, and touches us here in our time.
Thanks, Amy. 🙂
Sylvia and Amy, your comments make me concerned that my deep skepticism about this account isn't coming through clearly enough in what I wrote. This is my first year as a Lent Madness blogger, and we were instructed not to editorialize in our brief posts.
I found all the accounts of Mary's life I read highly objectionable, based on what I know about the distortion of women's history. Specifically, I found it puzzling that she claimed to have sex because of an unsatisfiable desire, not for money, but she was still labeled a prostitute. This reflects for me the shadow side of Christian attitudes about sex and the widespread fear of female sexuality.
Perhaps Mary was forced into prostitution, as Sylvia suggests, and as we know many human beings still are. Or, perhaps she was driven by a consuming desire that she found only God could satisfy. More sex-positive strands of our tradition acknowledge that sexual desire and divine longing are closely intertwined and that intersection is something I'm interested in, as a romance novelist. Perhaps I deserve the label prurient, but I happen to think sexuality deserves some positive attention in the Christian tradition.
To that end, I suppose I chose to imagine an interpretation where she wasn't a victim, but an agent seeking, and eventually finding.
Thank you for elabortion on a more positive interpretation of Mary's story. Perhaps she can be likened to the woman at the well, with a big dollop of hagiographic exaggeration on top. Still, I have always thought that this notion of "prostitutes" "liking it" so much that the money is almost superfluous is simply a way to deny the reality of sexual slavery and human trafficking. Indeed the money does seem to be irrelevant, to others, since any woman who has any amount of sex might be called a whore regardless of the circumstances. It seems to be more of a code for "piece of meat" than a job description.
Debbie, thanks for sharing your sense of humor!
Debbie, thanks for sharing your sense of humor!
Eek. This comment belongs to the one below. Not sure how that happened.
Ow.
The anti-ascetic cultural bias here is rather disturbing. I voted for Mary, but would happily have voted for Antony too. It wasn't as hard a choice as some, but certainly didn't tempt me to abstain from voting.
Unlike several others I was aware of both these Saints. Mary is believed to have been a courtesan and possibly an actress. Her story is so steeped in legend it is difficult to credit. On the other hand, Anthony is considered the father of Christian monasticism, his life is well documented. Finally, I have to say I love the stories of the desert hermits...wasn't John the Baptist' lifestyle a bit...bizarre? My vote is for Anthony and I'll reserve judgment in regard to his sister.
Typo in name on above comment.
Sexually aggressive girls are almost always victims of abuse. Given the culture of the time and region, a violated girl was seen as at fault. Tired of so many women of the Bible identified as repentent prostitutes. We need to revise our modern understanding of a woman's role in the world. Dynamic research of women in culture at Killing Me Softly parts 1-4 on YouTube or Google. I vote for Mary. Time to rewrite ancient mythology on the character of womankind.
Thanks to Mariana for the wonderful link to the Orthodox discussion of Mary.
I came into the contest predisposed to vote for Mary, because few realize there were women, as well as men, who went off to live in the desert. But I found the virgin/whore trope in her story really distasteful. On the other hand, that was written by her male hagiographers, so fairly predictable to find it there.
I really liked the part of her story at that link where she baptized herself (like Thecla!) and gave communion to herself. Her death shortly after receiving communion again years later reminded me of Imelda, patron of first communicants, whose story was told to me as a child and I found it very sweet and remain attached to it despite looking side-eyed at some of the elements of the story as an adult.
There weren't many ways for women to live autonomously, and she found one.
So, I voted for Mary after all.
A couple responses to the discussion:
- on Antony and martyrdom: as others have pointed out, it was very common among Christians during the persecutions to want to be martyred. Some of the texts that have survived from that era are bishops who are having to tell their people not to do that! So Antony doesn't lose any points on that one for me at all.
- "putting" his sister into the House of Virgins: it was the verb that put me right off, and I tried to get over that. There are stories of whole families (like Basil's!) who shared a radical devotion to Christ, and it is plausible to me that Antony's sister shared that. And as many have pointed out, life in a convent or house of virgins was likely the most self-directed life available to most ordinary women.
- on the general "what did they do for other people" trend, that sounds a bit Pelagian to me! We don't earn our way into heaven or sainthood by our works.
I think Mary's life as a hermit, even more than Antony's, showed a whole-hearted, whole-bodied, whole-everything, relationship with God. To me, that is the aspect of their lives that can make them role models for us today: especially during Lent, when we are called to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel, to go into the Lenten desert for 40 days to fast and pray.
Pelagian! That's the word I was searching for! Haven't pulled that one up since seminary 20-some years ago. Thanks for summing up what bothered me so much yesterday in the Joseph/Anna conversations. Whoever does the most stuff wins?? {{shudder}}
This pairing is pretty damn problematic.
Voted for Mary, because the slut-shaming tone of her story probably isn't her fault.
So, here we all are: in an online Community---and we don't get the aesthic movement so popular in past centuries. Thus it's no surprise many of us cannot relate to the two saints-of-the-day. Poor old Mary runs off to the desert to do pennance for her life of sin---she admited her sin, confessed her sin and sought forgiveness. Poor old Antony, disburses the family forture, after providing his little sister with a group home, and makes a heritage in the desert. He also makes a stand in opposition to the arian heresay.
Each of these three, poor old saints loved and honored God.
So, we, non-hermits though we be, choose one saint today. Don't worry if none of them is your 'cup of tea'! They didn't even Have Tea! Be brave! Vote! After all, you can't go wrong with a saint!
I'm voting for...Antony, the father of monasticism. (Yes, I'm supporting hermitages while addressing a massive, but unseen, online community of Christians. Madness, I know.)
Love it!
Mary of Egypt all the way. She is my Confirmation Saint. I wonder what appealed to me so much as a child? She has stood by me all my life, so I will stand by her.
And I hope Antony's parents haunted him for selling everything and putting his sister in a home!
Boos to Antony for deciding his sister would benefit from poverty and group living. This makes me appreciate my big brother even more.
I had to go with Antony cuz I just can't vote for a woman who was held up as a prostitute (how many men get held up as examples of pimps & johns?) & then of her choices swinging to the other extreme. Of course, Antony wasn't all so stable either. But I have to stand w/ Antony this time.
I felt the same way. Plus Antony gave away everything he owned to the poor which deserves serious props.
I'm afraid I'm just more attracted to hermits as cookies than as people, and that seems to be true of many of us. It's so hard to get our minds to enter a Christian culture in which such things as hermits and houses of virgins seem to have been widely accepted and even rather common. Which again proves the point of Lent Madness.
Daniel. One if the early responses. I am in total agreement. With your addiction comments. Trying to fill that hole inside our hearts with a substance or behavior is a disease until we figure out what caused that hole in the first place. Mary got my vote. I may never understand what causes my loved ones behavior but I see Mary of Egypt clearly. Once she overcame her compulsion. She lived a saintly life. I can only pray for such things to happen among any of us
How on earth does one enter the voting. I have read with interest the stories of the candidates but have never discovered the voting mechanism