When a young man in a small Egyptian town hears the Gospel read aloud, he takes the words with startling literalness: he sells what he owns, gives the money to the poor, and walks into the desert to find his own soul. So begins the life of Antony, the hermit whose story became the founding legend of Christian monasticism. Written around 360 by Athanasius, the great bishop of Alexandria, The Life of Antony is part biography, part spiritual guide, and part survival story of a man who spent decades alone with his thoughts, his fears, and what he called the snares of demons. This modern-English edition, prepared for today's readers, preserves the urgency and warmth of the original while making its vision of courage, faith, and inner freedom newly accessible. It is a book about what it means to stand bravely inside silence — and to find that the wilderness, strangely, becomes a home. Part of The World Scriptures Library.