Saint Amun (294 – 357)

Excerpts from
De Vitis Patrum, Book II
By Rufinus of Aquileia
Chapter XXIII
AMMON (cf. VIII.12)

Among them we saw another venerable father called Ammon, upon whom God had conferred a great fulness of spiritual gifts. If you could see the grace of charity in him you would say that you had never seen anything like it anywhere. And if you were thinking about his humility you would have to say that he was more accomplished by a long way in this gift than anyone else. Ana again, if you considered how he excelled all others in each one of the virtues of patience, gentleness, kindness, you would not know how to find anyone better than him. God had conferred upon him such gifts of wisdom and knowledge that you would believe that no one out of all the fathers had penetrated so deeply into the realms of every kind of knowledge there is. Everybody who met him said that no one had been taken up so closely into the wisdom of God. He had two of his brothers with him, Eusebius and Euthymius. His older brother Dioscuros had been elevated to the episcopate. They were not only brothers according to the flesh, but brothers in their style of life and total nobility of soul. Like a nurse caring for her children, they were a source of strength to all the brothers living in that place, instructing each one of them, and striving to lead them to the highest peak of perfection.
We found that this man of God, Ammon, had a cell (monasterium) with a wall round it, which was very easy to construct out of rough building blocks in these parts. Inside it was everything he needed - he had even dug a well. There was once a brother who came to him seeking salvation and who asked him if there was an empty cell anywhere where he could live.
"I will find out", he said. "But until I do, stay here in this cell. I am going out now to see to what you want." And he left his cell and everything in it and found a tiny little cell quite some distance away and set himself up in it. The newly arrived brother did not even realise that Ammon had given him his own cell and everything in it.
But if several people arrived at once seeking salvation he would gather the brothers together and quickly give them instructions so that a new cell would be built on that very day. And when a sufficient number of cells had been built to cater for the needs of them all, he took those who would be living in them to the church as if to provide them with refreshment, but while they were in there each one of the brothers would bring necessary items from their own cells and put them in the new ones. As a result of this charitable exercise there was no lack of either tools or food, and it wasn't at all obvious who had given what. At vespers time, those for whom the cells had been prepared came back and found them fitted out with everything necessary for living in. The cells had been so built that there was nothing lacking.

St. Amun
Ammon or Amun (294 – 357) was a saint and hermit of Egypt. He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Saint Athanasius mentions him in his life of source of map: Monks and Nuns of the Egyptian Desert
Saint Anthony. His name is the same as that of the ancient Egyptian god Amun.

According to his legend, he was forced into marriage at the age of 20 and persuaded his wife, on their wedding night, to embrace a vow of chastity. The two lived together for 18 years in celibacy, and then he left to become a monk in the Nitrian desert, while she founded a convent in her own house. He cooperated with Saint Anthony and gathered his monks under his direct supervision, thus forming a monastery from sole hermits. Traditionally, he is supposed to have been the first hermit to have a monastery, known as Kellia.... This is by no means verifiable, but it is more certain that Amun's piety and fame drew others to the region. He is considered to have died at the age of 62 years old. His feast day is October 4 in the Eastern Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic, and Roman Catholic Churches. His feast in the Coptic Orthodox Church is on 20 Pashons.
source: Wikipedia

Sometimes called AMUN or AMUS, born about 350; an Egyptian who, forced into marriage when twenty-two years old, persuaded his wife on the bridal night to pronounce a vow of chastity, which they kept faithfully, though living together for eighteen years; at the end of this time he became a hermit in the desert of Nitria, and she formed a congregation of religious women in her own house. Nitria, to which Ammon betook himself, is a mountain surmounted by a desolate region, seventy miles south of Alexandria, beyond Lake Mareotis (which Palladius call Maria). At the end of the fourth century there were fifty monasteries there inhabited by 5,000 monks. St. Jerome called the place "The City of God". As to whether Ammon was the first to build a monastery there, authorities disagree, but it is certain that the fame of his sanctity drew many anchorites around him, who erected cellos not only on the mountain but in the adjacent desert. St. Anthony came to visit him and induced him to gather his scattered solitaries into monasteries. When Ammon died at about the age of 62, Anthony, though thirteen days journey distant, saw his soul entering heaven. He is honored on 4 October.
source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

Around the year 320, Amun became the first monk to settle in the desert of NITRIA. Orphaned early, he had been obliged to marry by an uncle, but lived with his wife in total continence for eighteen years. After becoming a monk, he was in touch with Saint ANTONY, who advised him about the establishment of a new monastic center in the desert of KELLIA (PG 65, col. 85). Amun died some time before Antony, who, from a distance, saw his soul carried up to heaven. The collections of apothegms that come especially from the communities of SCETIS have only a few items relating to Amun.
source: Dictionary of African Christian Biography

60. And this is so, for once again he [Antony] was sitting on the mountain, and looking up saw in the air some one being borne upwards, and there was much joy among those who met him. Then wondering and deeming a company of that kind to be blessed, he prayed to learn what this might be. And immediately a voice came to him: 'This is the soul of Amun, the monk at Nitria.' Now Amun had persevered in the discipline up to old age; and the distance from Nitria to the mountain where Antony was, was thirteen days' journey. The companions of Antony therefore, seeing the old man amazed, asked to learn, and heard that Amun was just dead [8]. And he was well known, for he had stayed there very often, and many signs had been wrought by his means. And this is one of them. Once when he had need to cross the river called Lycus (now it was the season of the flood), he asked his comrade Theodorus to remain at a distance, that they should not see one another naked as they swam the water. Then when Theodorus was departed he again felt ashamed even to see himself naked. While, therefore, he was pondering filled with shame, on a sudden he was borne over to the other side. Theodorus, therefore, himself being a good man, approached, and seeing Amun across first without a drop of water falling from him, enquired how he had got over. And when he saw that Amun was unwilling to tell him, he held him by the feet and declared that he would not let him go before he had learned it from him. So Amun seeing the determination of Theodorus especially from what he had said, and having asked him to tell no man before his death, told him that he had been carried and placed on the further side. And that he had not even set foot on the water, nor was that possible for man, but for the Lord alone and those whom He permits, as He did for the great apostle Peter [9]. Theodorus therefore told this after the death of Amun. And the monks to whom Antony spoke concerning Amun's death marked the day; and when the brethren came up from Nitria thirty days after, they enquired of them and learned that Amun had fallen asleep at that day and hour in which the old man had seen his soul borne upwards. And both these and the others marvelled at the purity of Antony's soul, how he had immediately learned that which was taking place at a distance of thirteen days' journey, and had seen the soul as it was taken up.
source: Life of Antony

Christian monasticism started in Egypt. According to tradition, St. Anthony was the first Christian to adopt this lifestyle. After a short while others followed. Originally, all Christian monks were anchorites (hermits) seldom encountering other people. But because of the extreme difficulty of the solitary life, many monks failed, either returning to their previous lives in the city, or becoming spiritually deluded.

A transitional form of monasticism was later created by Saint Amun in which "solitary" monks lived close enough to one another to offer mutual support as well as gathering together on Sundays for common services.
source: Global Oneness

Ammon, Saint sometimes called Amun or Amus, b.about 350; an Egyptian who, forced into marriage when twenty-two years old, persuaded his wife on the bridal night to pronounce a vow of chasity, which they kept faithfully, though living together for eighteen years; at the end of this time he became a hermit in the desert of Nitria, and she formed a congregation of religious women in her own house. Nitria, to which Ammon betook himself, is a mountain surmounted by a desolate region, seventy miles south of Alexandria, beyond Lake Mareotis (which Palladius calls Maria). At the end of the fouth century there were fifty monasteries there inhabited by 5,000 monks. St. Jerome called the place "The City of God". As to whether Ammon was the first to build a monastery there, authorities disagree, but it is certain that the fame of his sanctity drew many anchorites around him, who erected cells not only on the mountain but in the adjacent desert. St. Anthony came to visit him and induced him to gather his scattered solitaries into monasteries. When Ammon died at about the age of 62 Anthony, though thirteen days' journey distant, saw his soul entering heaven....
source: The Catholic encyclopedia

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