Saint Antony the Younger

Saint Antony the Younger (Greek: Ἀντώνιος ὁ Νέος; 785 – 11 November 865) was a Byzantine military officer who became a monk and saint. He is commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 1 December. Saint Antony was born John Echimos (Ἰωάννης Ἔχιμος) at Phossaton near Jerusalem in 785. His parents were Photeinos and Irene, and he had at least a brother named David and a sister named Theodoule. According to his hagiography, as a child he was brought to the hermit John, who foretold his future. When his mother died in c. 800, he and his siblings left Palestine for Attaleia. There he entered imperial service, probably in the Byzantine navy. In 821 or 822 he was promoted to ek prosopou (deputy governor) of the Cibyrrhaeot Theme. He held the post until 825, although he may have been promoted to thematic governor (strategos) in the meantime. He participated in the suppression of the rebellion of Thomas the Slav in 822–823, then spent ten months in Constantinople in 823–824, before returning to his theme and leading the repulsion of an Arab attack on either Attaleia or Syllaion. In 825, just as he was about to be married, he was secretly tonsured by the stylite monk Eustratios, and adopted the monastic name Antony. Joined by his servant Theodore, he spent some time at Amorion, before moving on to Pylae and Nicaea, and thence to the Agauron or Pandemos Monastery on the Bithynian Olympus. His hagiography claims that during these journeys he was repeatedly rescued from need in miraculous manner. In 829 or 830 he was tried on the orders of Emperor Theophilos by the epi ton deeseon Stephen for his persecution of Thomas the Slav's adherents after the end of his rebellion, and was imprisoned for five months at Constantinople. After being whipped, he was released, and returned to Agauron. Sometime later (Raymond Janin places this between 837 and 843) he went to Briles, where he lived in a chapel dedicated to Saint Panteleimon.