ATHANASIUS

THE LIFE OF ANTONY

AND

THE LETTER TO MARCELLINUS

TRANSLATION AND INTRODUCTION

BY

ROBERT C. GREGG

PREFACE

BY

WILLIAM A. CLEBSCH

PAULIST PRESS

Cover Art

A graduate of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, cover artist ANDRIJ MADAY has won numerous awards for his graphic designs and prints. He has exhibited his paintings and woodcuts in approximately eighty shows in the United States and has permanent collections at universities in Italy, Canada, and the United States. Mr. Maday’s art, based on simple rectangular and circular designs, is inspired by ancient Ukranian icons and conveys Mr. Maday’s own deep mystical experience and rich Ukranian Eastern Orthodox heritage.

Design: Barbini, Pesce & Noble, Inc.

Copyright © 1980 by Paulist Press, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress

Catalog Card Number: 79-56622

ISBN: 0-8091-2295-2

Published by Paulist Press

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Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

THE CLASSICS OF WESTERN SPIRITUALITY

A Library of the Great Spiritual Masters

President and Publisher

Kevin A. Lynch, C.S.P.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

Richard J. Payne

Editorial Consultant

Ewert H. Cousins—Professor and Director of Spirituality Graduate Program, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

John E. Booty—Professor of Church History, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass.

Joseph Dan—Professor of Kaballah in the Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

Louis Dupré—T.L. Riggs Professor in Philosophy of Religion, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Rozanne Elder—Executive Vice President, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Mircea Eliade—Professor in the Department of the History of Religions, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

Anne Fremantle—Teacher, Editor and Writer, New York, N.Y.

Karlfried Froelich—Professor of the History of the Early and Medieval Church, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.

Arthur Green—Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Thought, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.

Stanley S. Harakas—Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, Brookline, Mass.

Jean Leclercq—Professor, Institute of Spirituality and Institute of Religious Psychology, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy.

Miguel León-Portilla—Professor Mesoamerican Cultures and Languages, National University of Mexico, University City, Mexico.

George A. Maloney, S.J.—Director, John XXIII Ecumenical Center, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

Bernard McGinn—Associate Professor of Historical Theology and History of Christianity, University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, Ill.

John Meyendorff—Professor of Church History, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y., and Professor of Patristics and Church History, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Tuckahoe, ...