Conclusions - Antony the Great 2025
5th september 2025
by fr. Michel van Parys
We have come to the conclusion of our 31st Colloquium on Orthodox Spirituality, dedicated this year to the ‘Father of Monks’ of East and West, Saint Antony the Great.
The speakers, who deserve our gratitude, presented the ecclesial and human context in which Saint Antony lived his long life (250/251-356), then the main literary sources that allow us to learn about his ascetic conversion, his battles against the Evil One, and his spiritual doctrine; and finally, the legacy he leaves today to monks and nuns, namely their vocation to serve God, the Churches, and humanity. It is, in a way, a triptych, the central panel of which is the monastic example and doctrine of Saint Antony as recounted by literary sources.