St. Anthony of Antioch, Priest and Martyr with Sts. Julian and Basilissa

Who was St. Anthony of Antioch?

St. Anthony of Antioch was a priest who gave his life for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian, at the beginning of the fourth century. We know him through the story of two better-known martyrs, the married saints Julian and Basilissa. When Julian's courage in prison brought others to the faith, it was the priest Anthony who baptized them, and he died with them.

The Roman Martyrology names him in its entry for January 9: Julian "was ordered by the president Marcian to be tormented in many ways and executed. With him suffered Anthony, a priest, and Anastasius, whom Julian raised from the dead, and made partaker of the grace of Christ; also, Celsus, a boy, with his mother Marcionilla, seven brothers, and many others."

He is not the same as St. Anthony the Great, the desert father, and his companion Julian is a different man from St. Julian of Antioch, the martyr of Cilicia.

The story of Julian, Basilissa and the priest Anthony

A marriage given to God

The Orthodox Church in America tells their story from the Greek tradition. Julian, born at Antinoe in Egypt, married the noble and wealthy Basilissa to please his parents, but the two agreed to live as brother and sister for the love of Christ. When their parents died, they built two monasteries, one for men and one for women, and each led one of them. The Roman Martyrology adds that many priests and ministers of the Church took refuge in their house during the persecution.

Converts in the prison

When the persecution struck, Julian was arrested and cruelly tortured on the orders of the governor Marcian. His courage moved the governor's own son, the boy Celsus, and Celsus's mother Marcionilla to believe. The account says Julian also raised a dead pagan to life, who took the name Anastasius, "risen." Twenty soldiers came to the faith as well.

The priest who baptized them

Here Anthony enters the story. According to the Orthodox account, "the converts received Baptism from the priest Anthony." The fuller Acts of these martyrs, printed by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, say that seven Christian brothers brought the priest Anthony secretly into the prison so that the soldiers and the governor's son could be baptized. For this Anthony was seized and tortured, and with the others he was put to the sword.

History and legend

We should say plainly what is certain and what is not. The martyrs Julian and Basilissa were honored in both East and West, and churches in France and elsewhere still bear their names. Their Acts, however, are a late and much embroidered work, and they disagree even on the city. The Roman Martyrology says Antioch; the Greek synaxaria say Antinoe, a city of Egypt, and many writers think the Egyptian city the original and Antioch a confusion of names. Anthony's name has come down to us only inside their story.

The raising of Anastasius and the other wonders of the Acts are traditional miracles. What we can hold with confidence is simpler: in a time of terror a priest risked his life to bring the sacrament of baptism to new believers, and he shared their death.

Symbols of St. Anthony of Antioch in art

Images of Anthony on his own are very rare; he usually appears, if at all, in the background of pictures of Julian and Basilissa. When he is shown, look for an elderly priest with the martyr's palm, sometimes with water or a shell for baptism, and the sword of his death. A seventeenth-century painting by Antonio Zanchi has sometimes been identified as his martyrdom, but Richard Stracke thinks it more likely shows another saint.

Feast day and where he is honored

We keep his memory on January 9 with Julian, Basilissa and their companions; the Orthodox Church honors the same martyrs on January 8. Churches dedicated to Sts. Julian and Basilissa still stand, such as the village church of Ventenac-Cabardès in southern France. See more saints of January on our feast days page, and read about what a martyr is.

Praying with St. Anthony of Antioch

We know of no traditional prayer to St. Anthony of Antioch that we can cite. Let us ask his help in our own words: holy priest Anthony, you carried the grace of baptism into a prison at the cost of your life; pray for priests, for prison chaplains, and for all who are preparing for baptism, and pray for us, that we may never be ashamed of the faith we received.