- Although Abba Antoni did not organise monastic life
per se, it was he who assigned a uniform to the monks. This
was a garb of white flax reaching below the knees after the
fashion of Pharaonic priests. A wide thick belt of leather
helped the monk to keep erect. Thus was the pattern set for
all monastic organisations, including the hermits, followed
suit.l2 - One time, in response to the request of the ascetics
scattered all over the desert, Abba Antoni made what might
be termed a pastoral tour. He visited both monks and nuns.
On his tour, he met his sister who had, unknown to him,
followed his example. She was living in the company of
some consecrated women in a spot of their own choice. - After spending eighty-five years in the desert to
which he had resorted at the age of twenty, St. Antoni was
"translated into the world of Light" (a Coptic expression
meaning ‘to die’). When he felt by the spirit that his hour
had come he called unto him two of his closest disciples and
requested them to bury him in the vast desert, and to tell no
man of his burial place. Then, kissing them with an holy kiss,
he said, "And now, I am going where God's Grace will lead
me". With these words, he laid him down, and, commending
his spirit into the Hands of the Heavenly Father,l3 peacefully
went to his eternal rest. - A monastery bearing the name of Abba Antoni stands
to this day in the region that had been hallowed by the life of
this luminous star of the Egyptian desert and Father of all the
monks. Near to the monastery is a natural cave situated over
a rocky boulder; it is the cave where the great Saint spent
most of his life. Until recently it was almost impossible to
visit the Antonian monastery, because of the hardship of
elle
(Elle)
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