He’s a saint of Egyptian origin that was very popular in the Medieval West. He went away on his own to live in the desert very early in his life, where he spend most of his live in solitude. Amongst the most popular chapters, the diabolic temptations he suffered stand out as well as his visit to Saint Paul, the First Hermit. Under his invocation, in high middle age, the Order of St. Anthony appeared and they specialized in curing contagious diseases.

Normally, Saint Anthony is represented as an old man with a beard, dressed in sackcloth with a hood, common clothing for the monks of his order.  His habitual attributes are the crosier in the form of “tau”, the bell, the little pig and the flames of the “fire of Saint Anthony” (ignis sacer), in allusion to the illness that the Antonians cured, gangrenous ergotism.  Furthermore, on occasions, he sometimes appeared as a hermit tormented by the little devils that appeared in the desert, one of the most known chapters of his life.