Eikon

Ammonas

Our Venerable Father Ammonas, Disciple of Anthony the Great and Bishop

Venerable · Bishop · d. early 5th century

Commemorated 26 January — Commemoration of the desert father

Ammonas (died early fifth century) was a disciple of Anthony the Great and, at Anthony's withdrawal to the Inner Mountain, his successor as father of the monks at the Outer Mountain of Pispir. Trained in the ascetic life first in the desert of Scetis, he became one of the great elders of the Egyptian desert, remembered above all for a meekness so complete that he seemed not to know evil — the abba who, shown wrongdoing, would not see it. Later ordained bishop, most likely by Athanasius the Great, he continued a shepherd of souls; several of his letters and a number of his sayings survive among the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, teaching unceasing self-examination, the guarding of the thoughts, and the hidden warfare of the heart. He is commemorated on January 26.

Ammonas belongs to the second generation of the Egyptian desert, the disciples of its founders. Before attaching himself to Anthony he is said to have spent fourteen years in Scetis, the great monastic wilderness of Lower Egypt, labouring above all — by his own account — to conquer anger and to acquire that freedom from passion which the fathers called apatheia. He then came to Anthony the Great at the monastic settlement of Pispir on the Nile, the "Outer Mountain," and became his trusted disciple; and when Anthony withdrew ever deeper into solitude at his "Inner Mountain," it was Ammonas whom he left to guide the brethren of the Outer Mountain, so that Ammonas is reckoned Anthony's successor there.

The trait the tradition fixes on is his innocence of evil. The Sayings record that his goodness was so great "that he took no notice of wickedness": brought as bishop to judge a case, or shown by others the sins of a brother, he would turn his eyes away and refuse to see, covering the fault in charity — not from dullness but from a heart so purified that it had, as it were, unlearned suspicion. One famous saying has him keep a woman hidden in a monk's cell out of sight of the accusers who came to expose the monk, saving the brother and shaming the accusers by his refusal to condemn. His counsel to those who sought him was inward and severe upon the self alone: to keep "the word of the publican" — God, be merciful to me a sinner — always in the heart, to weigh every thought before God, and to walk the narrow way of the cutting-off of one's own will.

At some point Ammonas was ordained bishop, the tradition says by Athanasius of Alexandria — the desert giving one of its sons to the wider Church, as it gave many. He continued to write and to counsel; his surviving letters, preserved in Syriac, Greek, and other versions, are among the earliest documents of desert spirituality, dwelling on the gift of the Spirit, the discernment of thoughts, and the necessity of stillness (hesychia). He reposed in the early fifth century and, the tradition adds, was buried in a chapel called Rufinianae.

Feast and commemoration

Ammonas is commemorated on January 26 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 8), together with Xenophon and his household and the other saints of the day. No proper office survives; he is sung under the common of a venerable ascetic. The January 10 commemoration and the identity question are noted above.

Iconography

Ammonas is depicted in the settled type of the Egyptian desert father: an aged monk, white-bearded and thin with fasting, in the plain tunic and koukoulion of the anchorites, often holding a scroll of his counsel; where his episcopate is marked he may wear the omophorion over the monastic habit. No securely identified early portrait proper to him has been located for storage, and no icon image is stored here.

Disputed questions

  • Which Ammon, and which day. The desert produced several fathers of this name, and the tradition has partly conflated them. This Ammonas — the disciple and successor of Anthony, later bishop — is kept by the received Greek Menaion and by the OCA on January 26; other calendars and the Prologue of Ohrid place a commemoration of "Ammon, disciple of Anthony" on January 10, and some scholars have wondered whether the figure honoured on January 26 is instead the priest Ammonas of whom Palladius writes in the Lausiac History (ch. 72). Nikodemos the Hagiorite inclines to the bishop, the successor of Anthony, and this entry follows him; the cross-day and cross-identity variance is recorded here rather than silently resolved.
  • Not to be confused with Ammon of Egypt — Ammoun of Nitria (c. 290 – c. 350, kept October 4), the founder of the monastic settlement of Nitria and Kellia and one of the very first Egyptian anchorites. That Ammoun is a distinct and earlier saint; the similarity of name (Ἀμοῦν / Ἀμμωνᾶς) has long caused the two to be confused.

Sources

  1. Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers), the alphabetical collection under Abba Ammonas — the sayings on meekness, the refusal to see evil, the "word of the publican," and the guarding of the thoughts.
  2. The Letters of Ammonas (surviving in Syriac, Greek, Georgian, and other versions) — the primary witness to his teaching on the Spirit and stillness.
  3. Palladius, Lausiac History — on the Ammonas figures of the desert (the identity question at ch. 72 noted under Disputed questions).
  4. Greek Menaion and Prologue of Ohrid, January 26 (and January 10) — the commemoration, the succession to Anthony, and the episcopate under Athanasius.
  5. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, January 26 (consulted live) — the disciple of Anthony, successor at the Outer Mountain, later bishop.