Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, celebrated the feast day of St. Anthony the Great this week in part with a social media post.

"St. Anthony the Abbot, pray for us," Cupich posted on Twitter on Jan. 17, St. Anthony the Great's feast day. "May we learn from your example to persevere in prayer."

Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago | CardinalBCupich Twitter

Cupich was appointed archbishop of Chicago by Pope Francis in September 2014 and installed the city's ninth archbishop of Chicago in November 2014, according to his bio on the archdiocese's website. Pope Francis named him a Cardinal in October 2016 and he was elevated to the College of Cardinals in November of that year in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. That same year, the Pope appointed Cupich to the Congregation for Bishops and the following year to the Congregation for Catholic Education. In 2020, Cupich was appointed to the Vatican Task Force to Assist Episcopal Conferences, Congregations of Religious and Societies of Apostolic Life in preparing and updating guidelines for the protection of minors.

St. Anthony the Great, also known as St. Anthony of Egypt, was a third century hermit who began to lead an ascetic life when he was 20. Fifteen years later, he withdrew to a mountain above the Nile to began a life of solitude for almost 20 years. Among other things, St. Anthony the Great endured a series of temptations from the Devil, temptations that took the form of visions. For example, if St. Anthony the Great was fasting, the Devil might torment him in a vision, dressed as a monk and bearing bread.  

St. Anthony the Great also saw visions of wild beasts or soldiers who would beat him and beautiful women who would tempt him. He prevailed over these visions through prayer and penitence.  

His experiences have been expressed in art, including paintings by Hiëronymus Bosch, Max Ernst, Paul Cézanne and Salvador Dalí, as well as by Gustave Flaubert in the 1874 novel "The Temptations of St. Anthony."

Tradition says that St. Anthony the Great, the patron saint of butchers, gravediggers and skin diseases, lived to the age of 105.