Anthem (from avri, in return, and v/ivog, a song), a psalm or hymn, sung in parts alternately, and cor- responding to the antiphonal singing of the primitive Church. It was introduced by Ignatius among the Eastern Churches and by Ambrose in the "West. In
modern times the word is used in a more confined sense, being applied to certain passages, usually taken out of the Scriptures, and adapted to a particular so- lemnity. Anthems were first introduced in the re- formed service of the English Church, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Anthimus (Martyr), bishop of Nicomedia, in Bi- thynia ; beheaded in 303 by order of Diocletian, who at the same time put to death, in various ways, many oth- ers of the faithful. The Latins commemorate them April 27th. — Eusebius, Hist. lib. viii, cap. 4 and 6.
Anthimus, bishop of Trebizond, and, in 535, pa- triarch of Constantinople, was deposed by Emperor Justinian as a Monophysite, and his works burned.
Anthologion ('Av9o\6yiov),\u Latin, Florilegium, a term used figuratively, like the classical word An- thology (ch&oXoyia, floral discourse), literally "a gar- land of flowers," hence a collection of short sentences from celebrated authors. It is the technical name of one of the Church books in use among the Greeks. It contains principally the offices which are sung on the festivals of our Lord, the Virgin, and the chief saints; then those called " communia," appointed for the festivals of the prophets, apostles, martyrs, pon- tiffs, etc. — Suicer, Thesaurus, p. 345.
Anthony, St., the patriarch of Coenobites, and virtual founder of monasticism, was born A.D. 251, at Coma, in Egypt. His parents left him large pos- sessions, but the words of our Lord to the rich young ruler so impressed his mind that he sold his posses- sions, gave the money to the poor, and retired into the desert, where he led an ascetic life. For more than twenty years, tried with various temptations, he dwelt apart, first in a cave, and then in a ruined house, having no communication with mankind but by a mes- senger, who brought him the necessaries of life. The fame of his sanctity attracted crowds of disciples, and he left his solitude to gather them into a fraternity. At the time of his death they numbered 15,000. He was visited by heathen philosophers, and Constantine the Great wrote to him, entreating his prayers. " Only in exceptional cases did Anthony leave his solitude, and then he made a powerful impression on both Christians and heathens with his hairy dress and his emaciated, ghost-like form. In the year 311, during the persecution under Maximinus, he appeared in Alexandria, in the hope of himself gaining the mar- tyr's crown. He visited the confessors in the mines and prisons, encouraged them before the tribunal, ac- companied them to the scaffold ; but no one ventured to lay hands on the saint of the wilderness. In the year 351, when a hundred years old, he showed him- self for the second and last time in the metropolis of Egypt to bear witness for the orthodox faith of his friend Athanasius against Arianism, and in a few days converted more heathen and heretics than had other- wise been gained in a whole year. He declared the Arian denial of the divinity of Christ worse than the venom of the serpent, and no better than heathenism, which worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. He would have nothing to do with heretics, and warned his disciples against intercourse with them. Athanasius attended him to the gate of the city, where he cast out an evil spirit from a girl. An invitation to stay longer in Alexandria he declined, saying, ' As a fish out of water, so a monk out of his solitude dies.' Imitating his example, the monks afterward forsook the wilderness in swarms whenever orthodoxy was in danger, and went in long processions, with wax tapers and responsive singing, through the streets, or ap- peared at the councils to contend for the orthodox faith with all the energy of fanaticism, often even with phys- ical force" (Hook). In his last hours he retired to a mountain with two of his disciples, whom he desired to bury him like the patriarchs, and keep secret the place of his burial, thus rebuking the superstitious
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