Forty years later, St. Anthony's little sister leads other women

COMA, Middle Egypt, 271 AD — A little girl in the Egyptian village of Coma lost her father and mother. Less than six months later, her older brother gave away the family’s farmland. It was three hundred acres, and he gave it to the people of the village.

Her brother was Saint Anthony of Egypt. This year, 271 AD, he was about eighteen or twenty. Their parents had been Christians, rich and well known in Coma. The village lies near the town of Heracleopolis in Middle Egypt. When the parents died, St. Anthony was left alone to run the house and look after his sister.

St. Anthony wanted to live the way the Apostles had lived. One day in church he heard the Gospel reading. In it, Jesus tells a rich young man to sell what he has and give to the poor. St. Anthony felt Jesus was saying those words to him.

He gave away the land and sold the rest of the family’s things for the poor. At first he held back a little money for his sister. Another time in church he heard Jesus tell his disciples not to worry about tomorrow. So he gave her money to the poor as well.

That left a small girl with no parents and no land. Her brother was about to leave home and live by himself.

Who would look after her

Before he left, St. Anthony talked with his sister about love, truth and the fear of God. He kept on until she came to see things the way he did. Then he took her to a group of women living nearby. They had given their lives to God and would never marry. St. Anthony knew these women and trusted them, and they were to bring her up and teach her.

St. Anthony moved into a house on the edge of the village and lived there alone. Egypt had no monasteries yet, so anyone who wanted to live alone for God did it close to home.

Over the years he went farther and farther from Coma. He crossed the river Nile and shut himself inside an old fort on a mountain. People threw food to him over the wall.

Other men came to live near St. Anthony as monks. Each monk had a small room of his own, called a cell. The monks looked to St. Anthony as their teacher. Later, St. Anthony left the monks in their cells near the river. He went on alone to a mountain deep in the Eastern Desert.

The girl he left behind

Once, some of the monks came out to the mountain. They asked St. Anthony to visit their cells, and he went back with them. A camel carried their bread and water. In all that dry desert, the only water fit to drink was at St. Anthony’s mountain. When they reached the cells, the monks all greeted him as if he were their father.

On that visit, more than forty years after he had left her with the women, St. Anthony saw his sister. The little girl had grown old. She had never married, and now she was the leader of other women who had given their lives to God. St. Anthony was glad to see what his sister had become.