The saint, who lived between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, is one of the most representative figures of Christian monasticism in Egypt. He stripped of his possessions, gave them to the poor and retired to meditate in the desert. Here, in solitude, he embarked on the path to perfection.
According to tradition, the devil would have tried him several times, appearing to him in the form of an angel, a woman and a pig, an animal that in tradition embodies greed and lust.
For this reason, St. Anthony Abbot is depicted with a piglet now cloaked at his feet, to symbolize his victory against temptations.
Over the centuries, however, the importance of the pig in rural culture has gradually changed the meaning of this image and the saint has become, from winner on the boar-devil, the protector of the pig-friend and, by extension, of all domestic animals.
From the eleventh century, the monks of the religious congregation of “Antoniani” began to treat the sick of the so-called “fire of St. Anthony” (Herpes Zoster) with ointments prepared with the fat of pigs that they raised in their monasteries.
The recurrence of St. Anthony the Abbot – on January 17, the date of his death – was very felt in the countryside. The day before the peasants cleaned the barn well and gave a double ration of food to the animals, because according to tradition the saint would come, during the night, to visit the animals and, if they had told him not to be treated well, he would not have done anything, during the year, to protect their masters from adversity.