ABSTRACT
Anthony successfully overcame attack by temptation, from the age of twenty until his death aged about 105. The author of The Life of St Anthony is anonymous, but he knew the hermit, though there is nothing to substantiate the traditional attribution of the work to Athanasias, the Archbishop of Alexandria. In the Legenda Aurea four pages are devoted to St Anthony. First of all the character of St Anthony is internalized, reframed in psychological terms. Here people are getting to the crux of the break between tradition and the literary myth. Whether it is regarded as sulphurous or boring, this work is the least well known of Flaubert's writings. While 'The Life of St Anthony' supported the Christian faith by exalting the saint, La Tentation de saint Antoine makes Christianity relative and exalts the visions. As a visionary, a seer and a voyeur, Anthony is on the lookout for the elusive scene showing people's origins.
