The World's Most Mysterious Objects. Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe

cartoonist’s “think bubble” coming out of his head and — within it — one of the alluring demonesses who was trying, unsuccessfully, to tempt him. Although strong-minded Anthony, reinforced by his ascetic lifestyle, was able to resist these delectable demonesses, the painters and their clients apparently were not!

      By the year 306, however, Anthony of Egypt decided to give up the solitary life at Pispir and devote himself to teaching the disciples who had gathered around him. He went off to Alexandria in 355 in order to argue against the Arian heresy. Anthony was a profound philosopher and theologian, and soon became admired not only for his brilliant mind and rhetoric but also for his charisma and the miracles that he was reported to have been able to perform. This combination of miracles and charisma won him a great many disciples and converts, some of them very eminent. There is even a letter from him to the Roman Emperor Constantine, which has been preserved for posterity.

      Saint Anthony of Padua.

      There was another famous hermit saint named Paul (nothing whatever to do with the famous Paul whose missionary work fills the Acts of the Apostles). This later Paul, who died around 350, was sometimes referred to as Paul of Thebes, sometimes as Paul the First Hermit. He had originally escaped to the desert to avoid the persecutions of Decius. Like the desert Anthony, who followed him in the tradition for several years, Paul was said to have lived to be well over a hundred.

      Jerome wrote an account of Paul's life that was based on a very early original Greek text. According to Jerome’s account, Anthony of Egypt encountered Paul of Thebes in the desert shortly before the ancient her mit died. Also in Jerome’s account, a raven flew by and dropped some bread, in much the same way that the Old Testament prophet Elijah was fed miraculously by ravens. Two lions then appeared mysteriously and dug Paul’s grave with their powerful paws. Anthony then buried the venerable hermit saint.

      When Anthony himself died many years later he was — at his own request — buried in a place that no one knew. Within ten years, however, so great was his reputation that his remains were found and taken to the city of Alexandria. Rival locations inevitably competed for the saint’s relics: Constantinople put in a bid for them, as did La Motte. It was here that the Order of Hospitallers of Saint Anthony was founded at the beginning of the twelfth century.

      Not surprisingly, it soon became a centre of pilgrimage for victims of ergotism, which was also referred to by the folk name of “Saint Anthony’s Fire.” In the Middle Ages, ergotine was a deadly hallucinogenic drug and an inducer of aetiological delirium. It was a sinister biological toxin derived from the ergot fungus, which frequently contaminated both bread and ale during the unhygienic Middle Ages.

      Many rational theories to explain numerous apparently paranormal phenomena have laid the blame fair and square on ergotine poisoning. In addition to its general hallucinogenic effects, ergotine causes the victim to see specific aetiological visions. These aetiological delusions, in one form or another, set out to explain to the tormented mind of the sufferer what is responsible for the agonizing pain that the ergotine is causing in his or her abdomen.

      Those who have suffered from ergotine poisoning — and who have been among the lucky few to have recovered from it — have given clinical accounts of their horrific experiences.

      To victims of ergotine, other people are seen as aliens, monsters, or demons who are invariably attacking them, either biting at their stomachs or tearing at them with fiendish claws. Because those who go to assist the victim are seen as enemies, the sufferer often strikes out at the very people who are doing their best to help.

      The ergotine poison theory has been put forward as an explanation for what became of the ill-fated crew of the Mary Celeste in November of 1872. Those who hold this theory have suggested that ergotine poisoning caused some of those aboard to hurl themselves into the sea to escape from the agonizing abdominal pain and from the “monsters” who they thought were pursuing them, while the remainder attacked one another, believing, because of their hallucinations, that they were attacking demons or monsters who were threatening them.

      These Hospitallers of Saint Anthony wore black robes with a blue tau-cross, and they soon spread across much of western Europe. A part of their ritual consisted of ringing small bells to attract gifts for the Order; these bells were given to those who had helped them and were placed round the necks of their benefactors’ animals with a view to protecting them from disease.

      The Hospitallers also had a rather strange privilege in that their pigs roamed where they wished in the street. Consequently, in the symbols representing Anthony in the later iconography, bells and pigs featured prominently.

      Anthony became widely known and was greatly venerated during the Middle Ages. He became the patron saint of many monastic orders and was believed to be a healer both of animals and human beings. The word “tantony” slipped into the language as a diminutive form of “Saint Anthony” and came to mean — by association with both iconographic bells and pigs — either the smallest bell or the smallest pig. The tantony was simply the tiniest one.

      It was this Anthony of Egypt after whom Anthony of Padua named himself. The newly named Friar Anthony set out for Morocco, where it was his intention to preach Christianity to the Islamic Moors. He was taken ill, however, and was unable to complete the mission on which he had originally set his heart. More problems swiftly followed. The difficulty of the illness that had altered his plans in the first place was now augmented by strong winds blowing in a direction he did not want: they drove his vessel to Messina in Sicily.

      Despite these setbacks, he made his way up to Assisi in 1221, where Francis and Elias were holding a special gathering of the chapter for all Franciscans. After this meeting, Anthony was sent to San Paolo, not far from Forli. Once there, he busied himself— like Martha, the industrious sister of Meditative Mary of Bethany — by washing the Order’s simple cooking utensils after meals.

      Up until this point in his career, it seemed that none of the senior members of the community recognized Anthony’s great intellectual gifts. His remarkable abilities first came to light when he was one of the priests attending an ordination; it transpired that none of the others had been told to prepare the necessary special ordination sermon, due to a failure of communication and some general administrative misunderstandings. The senior priests having all declined because they had nothing ready, young Anthony offered to give the address. He did it with such fervent eloquence and such depth of spiritual knowledge that all who heard him were deeply impressed by the young man’s great ability. He was immediately commissioned as a preacher and sent up to northern Italy and then to France.

      Not only a preacher but also a teacher, he gave lessons in theology at Padua, Montpelier, Toulouse, and Bologna. Just as Saint Francis was said to have preached to the birds, so Saint Anthony of Padua was said to have attracted the fish from the Marecchia river. According to tradition, these remarkably perceptive fish were alleged to have popped their heads out of the water and to have remained in neat rows until he had finished his sermon. Anthony was only thirty-six when he died in Padua in 1231, in a building next to the convent of the Poor Clares at Arcella, just outside the city. An altar was put up at the place where he died, and the room was made into an oratory.

      The cult of Saint Anthony has always been associated with the most extraordinary miracles. He is particularly credited with being the finder of lost articles. This may date back to an occasion when someone borrowed his Psalter without his permission. According to legend, the unauthorized borrower saw a terrifying apparition, which led to the immediate return of the book.

      A far nobler and worthier memorial to him is Saint Anthony’s Bread, a very special charitable fund that helps the necessitous and starving, especially in the developing nations. Just as Anthony of Egypt has pigs and bells for his emblems, so Anthony of Padua has a book and a lily, often with the infant Christ seated on his book. The basis of the inclusion of the infant Christ on Anthony’s book is a remarkable report made by Count Tiso.

      The Count had given the Franciscans a hermitage on property that he owned. When Tiso called to visit them one day, he saw a brilliant light around the edges of the hermitage