Feast Day
2 saints in our library are celebrated on January 17.
347 — 395
The last emperor to rule both halves of the Roman Empire, Theodosius established Nicene Christianity as the official state religion with the 380 Edict of Thessalonica and confirmed its orthodoxy at the First Council of Constantinople in 381. A capable general who ended the Gothic War and defeated two usurpers, he is remembered in Christian tradition above all for submitting to public penance imposed by St. Ambrose after ordering the Massacre of Thessalonica in 390.
c. 251 AD — January 17, 356 AD
Anthony the Great abandoned a wealthy Egyptian inheritance at age twenty and withdrew into the desert, becoming the father of Christian monasticism. After thirteen years of ascetic life in the Nitrian Desert, he spent two decades sealed inside an abandoned Roman fortress at Pispir, then emerged — reportedly radiant with health — to guide the communities that had gathered around him. He died at 105 near the Red Sea, buried in a secret place at his own instruction.