The Church today venerates the memory of St. Anthony the Great, the father of monks, who was born in Lower Egypt in 251 to pious parents — and who devoted himself to aesthetic monasticism from a very young age, upon hearing the Gospel verse: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou hast, and give to the poor”.
Distributing to the poor all his possessions, he fled from the turmoil of the world and dwelled in the Egyptian desert for decades as an ascetic.
January 17 also marks the feast day of Georgios, the New Martyr of Ioannina, in northwest Greece. He was executed by the Ottoman Turks in 1838 for maintaining his faith.