Anonymous - Early Christian Lives

A call the section on the Big Book List that are full of Anonymous authored texts largely derived from the Penguin classics list - the Anonymous Forest! Other pulls from that second on the list, Njal’s Saga (before I started doing the newsletter).

Going into this text, I have read The Life of Anthony in seminary so I counted that text completed here, and so I had some texts from Jerome to read and a few others. These writings were leaps and bounds more interesting to read than Voragine, sorry for the hate old guy - but Jerome is a much better writer. I will keep this section short as well, I enjoyed reading these biographies rather than hagiographies. The story of Anthony’s coat comes back in Jerome account of the life of Paul of Thebes. Apparently, Anthony thought that he was the first hermit, but someone tells Anthony of Paul of Thebes, so Anthony (in Paul’s story) sets off to find him.

A Centaur in the desert gives Anthony directions. Anthony finds Paul of Thebes in a cave, and Paul is dying so Anthony offers to wrap Paul in Athaneasus’s coat. Anthony only has two possession in the world, his own coat he entered into the monastic life with and one that Athaneaus gave him. Paul refuses to take the gesture of being wrapped in this coat, so Anthony brings it home with him. When Anthony dies, he wills the secondary coat back to Athaneaus. That is all you need to know about the Early Christian Lives, also Maurus comes back into play in the life of Benedict which was hilarious again.

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