Monastic life Ammonas moved into the Egyptian desert with his three brothers and two sisters so that they could draw nearer to God. He was a trusted disciple of
Anthony the Great and became his successor at the monastery on the Outer Mountain of
Pispir (
Egypt, east of the
Nile river) after Anthony relocated in AD 305 (see
Dayr al-Maymūn).
As a bishop Timothy, the
Bishop of Alexandria at the time, heard of Ammonas and desired to ordain him. Initially, he did not want to become a bishop even purportedly mutilated his body so that he could escape ordination. Nevertheless, Ammonas was eventually ordained a Christian bishop, and at least two third or fourth-century epistles are attributed to him, translated in
Syriac (regarded as the most reputable),
Latin, and
Greek. They exist among the letters and exhortations of
Anthony. There were other epistles written by a certain Ammonas, but which scholars are unable to attribute with certainty to Ammonas of Egypt, as Dr. Johannes Tromp of
Leiden University notes. The epistles of Ammonas of Egypt that are historically verified to be written by him provide important insight into
eastern Christian
monasticism in the early centuries of Christianity. Ammonas is said to have died at the beginning of the fifth century and, according to
Palladius of Galatia, was buried in a chapel called Rufinianæ. == Quotations ==