January 17
The saints and feasts remembered on January 17, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint Anthony the Abbot
Gave away his land to seek God in prayer in the Egyptian desert
Anthony was born in Middle Egypt, around 251 according to his biographer, to Christian parents who owned good farmland. They died while he was still a young man, leaving him to care for his younger sister. One day in church he heard Jesus tell a rich young man to sell everything and give to the poor. Anthony took it personally: he gave away his land, arranged for his sister’s care and began a life of prayer and manual work.
Step by step he moved into solitude: near his village, then among old tombs, then an abandoned fort, and finally a mountain near the Red Sea. He faced fierce inner struggles, yet people kept seeking his advice, and many settled nearby to copy his way of life. He died in 356, very old, leaving his worn sheepskin cloak to his friend Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.
Athanasius’s Life of Anthony was read across the Christian world. Anthony is remembered as a father of monastic life.
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
Matthew 19:21 · BSB
A prayer
God of mercy, you called your servant Anthony to leave everything and follow Christ in prayer and solitude, and through his life you drew many to seek you. Free us from whatever holds our hearts captive, teach us to share generously, and keep us faithful in times of struggle, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.