Saint Antonios (Anthony) was an Egyptia, born about 250 AD in a village called Quemen-el-Arons near Heracleopolis. After the death of his rich and noble parents, he shared his inherited possessions with his sister, who was still in her minority, made sure that she was cared for, gave away his half of the inheritance to the poor and, at the age of twenty, consecrated himself to the life of asceticism that he had desired from childhood.

The passions represent the lowest level to which human nature can fall. Both their Greek name, pathi, as well as the Latin, passiones, show that man is brought by them to a state of passivity, of slavery. In fact, they overcome the will, so that the man of the passions is no longer a man of will; we say that he is a man ruled, enslaved, carried along by the passions.

Supernatural revelation came to its close in Christ. For in Him, as in its first exemplar, the plan to save and to deify (theosis) creation has reached its fulfillment. This plan cannot lead any higher. God draws no closer to man that He has in Christ. The union between God and man cannot advance any farther nor can we grow to any higher fulfillment than the one available to us in Christ.

The fact that the object of asceticism isn't only the cleansing of the passions, but also the simultaneous acquiring of the virtues, shows once again that asceticism isn't something negative, but a fortification of our nature. In the course of asceticism, by prolonged endeavor, vicious habits are suppressed and virtuous ones planted in our nature, and much tenacity is needed to stop our old ways from springing up again and to consolidate good, new habits.

Asceticism is the "slaying of death" in us, to liberate our nature from its bondage, as Saint Maximus the Confessor points out. There are really two deaths: The first is produced by sin and is the death of our nature. The second is a death like Christ's, which is the death of sin and the death produced by it. However, the death of our nature, through the decomposition produced by sin, doesn't come only at the final moment; rather it nibbles away for a long time like a worm. So too the death of death, or of sin, isn't something momentary but must be prepared for through long ascetical mortification.

"The principal things for the whole use of man's life are water, fire, iron and salt, flour of wheat, honey, milk, and the blood of the grape, and clothing. All these things are for good to the godly: so to the sinners, they are turned into evil" (Ecclesiasticus 39:32-33).