2013 Reprint of 1950 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The present volume contains the most important document of early monasticism, "The Life of St. Antony," whose author is no less a man than the great St. Athanasius himself. Antony, generally considered the father of Christian monasticism, was born circa 250 a.d. to well-to-do parents in Middle Egypt. Athanasius is counted as one of the four Great Doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church as well as one of the Great Doctors of the Church in Eastern Orthodoxy, where...