ELIZABETH AGAIBY: The Life of Antony, attributed to Serapion of Thmuis

Antony the Great has had a compelling lure on the imaginations of Christians from Late Antiquity to the present day. The success of hisVita attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria, elevated Antony above his ascetic peers and established him as the ‘father of monasticism’ throughout the Christian world. TheVita is still considered the primary source for the study of Antony and his monastic environment.However, Antony has anotherVitaattributed to Serapion of Thmuis that has hitherto remained overlooked and unpublished. Originally composed in Arabic around the 13th century, it quickly gained more popularity and influence in Egyptian monasteries than the Athanasian recension, and from the 14th century to the mid-20th century, it not only won widespread acceptance, but the authority of liturgical texts.The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the key themes in the ArabicLife of Antony,and show differences between it and the GreekLife, as well as consider some of the possible reasons for the composition of the ArabicLife.