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ANTONY2 (saint), c. A.D. 251-356, was born in Egypt and is said to have died in the Egyptian desert. He is regarded as the founder of eastern monasticism (NCE I: 594-596).

In his homily on Superbia, the Parson describes the medieval fashion of the tight codpiece, made of two colors to emphasize the shape and size of the "privee members" in such a way as to suggest that the private parts are swollen with the "fir of Seint Antony," ParsT 425-428. This image refers to the disease called "erysipelas," an acute eruption of the skin, marked by spreading inflammation. An epidemic of erysipelas broke out in the Dauphiné during the thirteenth century, and the sick were tended by the monks of St. Antony. Afterwards the disease was known as St. Antony's fire.

The saint appears only once, ParsT 425.


Athanasius, Vita Sancti Antonini, PG 26: 835-978; PL 73: 125-170; ibid., La plus ancienne version Latine de la vie de S. Antoine; Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 99-103; ibid., LA, ed. Th. Graesse 104-107; François Villon, The Complete Works, ed. J. Nicolson, 256-258.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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