Mount Colzim (or ''Qulzum'', ''Qalzam'', or ''Qolozum''), also known as the Inner Mountain of Saint Anthony, is a mountain in

Red Sea Governorate The Red Sea Governorate ( ) is one of the 27 governorates of Egypt. Located between the Nile and the Red Sea in the southeast of the country, its southern border forms part of Egypt's border with Sudan. Its capital and largest city is Hurgha ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, which was the final residency of

Anthony the Great Anthony the Great (; ; ; ; – 17 January 356) was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as , by various epithets: , , , , , and . For his importance among t ...

from about AD 311, when he was 62 years of age, to his death in 356. Currently, the

Monastery of Saint Anthony The Monastery of Saint Anthony is a Coptic Orthodox monastery standing in an oasis in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, in the northern part of the Red Sea Governorate close to the border with the Suez Governorate. Hidden deep in the Red Sea Mountai ...

, a

Coptic Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, exists in the same location.

Name

The name ''Colzim'' is derived from the ancient city of Clysma (, meaning "surf, waves that break"; ; ). Clysma was a major Red Sea port and a center of monasticism. Mount Colzim is called the Inner Mountain of Anthony (also called Qulzum, Qalzam, or Qolozum).

Location

The Inner Mountain is located near the modern Coptic Christian Monastery of Saint Anthony (Dayr Mārī Antonios) in Egypt which was built in the fourth century and which is reputedly Christianity's oldest operating monastery. It is about 160 kilometers southeast of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, in the northern foothills of the Red Sea Mountains.

History

Residency of Anthony the Great

Since the early days of his monasticism and prior to 311,

Anthony Anthony, also spelled Antony, is a masculine given name derived from the '' Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descenda ...

lived at what

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...

called his ''outer mountain'' (located at Pispir next to the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

) for almost twenty years. According to Athanasius' ''Life of Anthony'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: ) written c. 360, Anthony sought to move further out of his desire for solitude.

"But when he saw himself beset by many eople and not allowed to withdraw himself according to his intent as he wished...he considered and set off to go into the upper Thebaid, among those to whom he was unknown."

By this time, Anthony's fame had grown, causing many monastics to come to him for guidance. Athanasius says that the voice of God (or in Coptic tradition, the voice of a woman by the Nile) told Anthony to move to the inner desert between the Nile and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

instead of moving to northern

Thebaid The Thebaid or Thebais (, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nome (Egypt), nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos, Egypt, Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximit ...

. Anthony traveled with a group of

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

s for three days along the Wādī al-'Arabah towards the

Gulf of Suez The Gulf of Suez (; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf was formed within a relative ...

"...he came to a very lofty mountain, and at the foot of the mountain ran a clear spring, whose waters were sweet and very cold; outside there was a plain and a few neglected palm trees."

Anthony was brought some food and provisions by his disciples, and often left the Inner Mountain to instruct his disciples at Pispir, even notably traveling more than 300 kilometers in old age to the city of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

to voice his opposition to

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

Cave of Saint Anthony

The cave in which Anthony the Great resided on Mount Colzim is believed to be a certain cave that sits 100 meters above and two kilometers away from the Monastery of Saint Anthony and is a popular site of pilgrimage for

Coptic Christians Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts p ...

. The presence of multiple monastic cells within the mountain, as well as the large history of monasticism on the mountain, makes it difficult to ascertain which exact cave Anthony lived in. Nevertheless, a spring mentioned in the ''Life of Anthony'' is allegedly the same spring that runs near the

Deesis In Byzantine art, and in later Eastern Orthodox iconography generally, the Deësis or Deisis (, ; , "prayer" or "supplication") is a traditional iconic representation of Christ in Majesty or Christ Pantocrator: enthroned, carrying a book, and ...

Chapel at the Monastery of Saint Anthony. This suggests that the modern-day monastery is more or less the exact location of Anthony's dwelling-place on the Inner Mountain. Anthony lived on the Inner Mountain for forty-three years until his death there in 356. Folklore maintains that he is still buried at the Monastery of Saint Anthony in the chapel of the Creatures of the Apocalypse.

Other monastic residencies

* Sisoes the Great (died 429) moved from

Scetis Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt deposits, ...

(where he was under the spiritual guidance of Abba Or) and took up habitation on Anthony's Inner Mountain in his cave in 357, shortly after Anthony's death in 356. Sisoes compared himself to Anthony by saying, "In the cave of a lion, a lowly fox makes its dwelling." Towards the end of his life, Sisoes was asked by a visitor whether he had attained to the stature of Abba Anthony. He replied, "If I had a single one of Abba Anthony’s thoughts, I would be entirely ablaze." Sisoes lived in Anthony's cave for seventy-two years. *

Paul the Simple Saint Paul the Simple of Egypt (d. ad. 339) was a hermit and disciple of St. Anthony the Great. St. John, the Abbot of Sinai wrote "Paul the Simple was a clear example for us, for he was the rule and type of blessed simplicity." Though contempora ...

lived on the Inner Mountain near Anthony until his death. * When

was destroyed in 395 by the

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

( Mazices), John the Dwarf relocated to near Mount Colzim and lived only a

day's journey A day's journey in pre-modern literature, including the Bible and ancient geographers and ethnographers such as Herodotus, is a measurement of distance. In the Bible, it is not as precisely defined as other Biblical measurements of distance; the ...

from the cave of

. John lived there for the remainder of his life at the same time that Sisoes resided in the cave of Anthony. * The Australian Coptic Orthodox anchorite Lazarus El Anthony currently lives at Mount Colzim.

References

{{reflist Mountains associated with Christian monasticism Red Sea Governorate Mountains of Egypt Anthony the Great * Christian pilgrimage sites