Saint Anthony the Abbot and His Pig-Pal Stormed into Hell! By Dr. Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
Saint Anthony the Abbot (251 –356), also known as the Patron Saint of Pigs, the Father of All Monks, Saint Anthony of the Desert, and Anthony the Great, was a Christian monk from Egypt, He was a strict vegan and a compassionate swineherd, in the same way that Jesus is a good shepherd.
Per Fiabe italiane (Italian Folktales) by Italo Calvino (1956/1986), as retold by Dr. Boria Sax in The Mythical Zoo (2008, 197), one winter night, when poor people were shivering from the cold, Saint Anthony, escorted by his pig companion, went to Hell to retrieve fire. The Saint knocked at the door. Initially, a devil would only let the pig in, thinking that they were going to have roasted pork. The pig, however, charged through the door, knocking the devil to the ground, then ran around snorting, grunting, pushing down piles of kindling, and scattering pitchforks. Every attempt made by the devils to stop and restrain him failed. The animal raised so much Hell in Hell that soon a devil let Anthony in, who, upon the devil’s request, calmed down the pig by touching it tenderly with his staff. A young devil foolishly seized the staff and thrust it in the fire. At that the pig jumped up and, once again, started wreaking havoc. "If you expect me to calm my pig, you’ll have to give me back my staff," the Saint threatened the devils. A large devil returned the staff to Saint Anthony and all the devils implored Saint Anthony to leave. The saint eventually left with his pig and, without the devils’ knowledge, carried fire—trapped inside his staff—from Hell to the poor.
Most of what is known about Anthony comes from the Life of Anthony, written in Greek by Athanasius of Alexandria in AD 360. Anthony was born in Koma in Lower Egypt to wealthy landowner parents. When he was about 20 years old, his parents died. Shortly thereafter, Anthony gave away some of his family's lands to his neighbours, sold the remaining property, and donated the funds to the poor. He then left to live an ascetic life in the alkaline Nitrian Desert for 15 years, spending the first years as the disciple of another local hermit. Anthony’s “food consisted of bread, salt and water: meat and wine he never touched at all. He slept upon a mat, and sometimes upon the bare ground,” per Barbara Watterson (1989, 57).
According to Athanasius, the devil fought Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women — trials which he overcame through the power of prayer, just as Jesus overcame the devil’s temptations during His forty days of fasting in the wilderness. After 15 years of this life, at the age of thirty-five, Anthony moved into the desert to a mountain by the Nile called Pispir. There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some 20 years. Gradually a number of would-be disciples established themselves in caves and in huts around the mountain. Eventually, he yielded to their importunities and, about the year 305, emerged from his retreat. To the surprise of all, he appeared to be not emaciated, but healthy in mind and body. For five or six years he devoted himself to the instruction and organization of the great body of monks that had grown up around him; but then he once again withdrew into the inner desert that lay between the Nile and the Red Sea.
The fame of Anthony spread and reached Emperor Constantine, who wrote to him requesting his prayers. Yet Anthony was not overawed and wrote back exhorting the Emperor and his sons not to esteem this world but remember the next. When Anthony departed from this world at the age of 105, he was interred, according to his instructions, in a grave next to his cell. His feast day is 17 January. #VeganChrist #VeganGod #VeganTheology #VeganChurch
References
Sax, Boria (2008). The Mythical Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature. NY: Overlook Duckworth. https://tuscriaturasarchivos.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/the-mythical-zoo-an-encyclopedia-of-animals-in-world-myth-legend-and-literature-by-boria-sax.pdf
Watterson, Barbara (1989). Coptic Egypt. Edinburg: Scottish Academic Press.
Komentáře