ON SAINT ANTHION
AMONG THE GREEKS.
From the Ms. Synaxary of Dijon.
CommentaryAnthion, among the Greeks (S.)
D. P.
The Synaxary in manuscript which Pierre François Chifflet once lent to us, and which we restored to the College of Dijon, supplied many holy Anchorites and Monks: It seems he died, consumed by leprosy or some other wasting disease. but for this day the aforenamed Saint; whom we may more easily suspect than affirm to have been like to them in his manner of life; since no life of him is set forth; but, with the commemoration of his name, only a single Distich, by which seems to be commended a certain remarkable patience, in enduring a grievous infirmity of the body, namely leprosy, or some other affliction dissolving the flesh. For thus it is read there:
On the same day, the holy Anthion is perfected in peace.
And it is subjoined:
Anthion is like a tree fairly leaved, Who bore the wasting of his flesh as the falling of leaves.
But there seems to be an allusion to the name Anthion, as though it were Anthizon, that is, Flowering or Florid; but there is understood the floweriness of manifold virtue, with which the Saint being adorned, counted as nothing the failing of his withered flesh; which he knew would be restored in eternal life; not otherwise than as the leaves return to a tree bare through winter, when spring returns.