Anthony the New

Saint Anthony the New, venerable, was first a man of office, then a monk, and lived in Bithynia. He is commemorated on 1 December (new style, the Greek calendar). His life is known from the Evergetinos (page 199), which Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite also reproduced.

After living in stillness for many years, he performed superhuman labours. Once, reading the discourse on obedience by Saint John Climacus, he came upon the thought that one who sits in stillness, recognises his own weakness and sells himself to obedience, though blind, without labour looks up to Christ. He then left stillness and gave himself to a coenobitic monastery at Kios in Bithynia. The abbot first assigned him to the service of the church, which is very heavy, then, at his own request, to a heavier task: pruning the vines, at which, unskilled, he often cut his fingers; then digging, the grape harvest and the refectory. His clothes tore, his shoes wore out and his feet split on the cold marble, for the abbot gave him neither clothes nor shoes, testing his patience.

One night he saw in a dream a glorious man holding a balance: in one pan were his sins from youth, in the other the hoe with which he cleared wild weeds from the monastery's fields; the hoe weighed down and scattered the sins. The man told him that the Lord had accepted his labours and forgiven his sins. After showing much obedience and patience and becoming a model of ascetic humility, Anthony reposed in peace.