of white wool. It is clear, from St. Athanasius, that St. Antony's
inner garment was a hair-cloth, over which he wore a cloak made of
sheep-skin.
29. This translation of his relics to Alexandria, though doubted of by
some Protestants, is incontestably confirmed by Victor of Tunone,
(Chron. p. 11, in Scalig. Thesauro,) who lived then in banishment at
Canope, only twelve miles from Alexandria; also, by St. Isidore of
Seville, in the same age, Bede. Usuard, &c. They were removed to
Constantinople when the Saracens made themselves masters of Egypt,
about the year 635. (pee Bollandus, pp. 162, 1134.) They were
brought to Vienne in Dauphine, by Joselin, a nobleman of that
country, whom the emperor of Constantinople had gratified with that
rich present, about the year 1070. These relics were deposited in
the church of La Motte S. Didier, not far from Vienne, then a
Benedictin priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Arles,
but now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Antony. In
1089, a pestilential erysipelas distemper, called the Sacred Fire,
swept off great numbers in most provinces of France; public prayers
and processions were ordered against this scourge; at length it
pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful
distemper, to those who implored his mercy trough the intercession
of St. Antony, especially before his relics; the church in which
they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers of pilgrims,
and his patronage was implored over the whole kingdom against this
disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named Gaston, and his son Girond,
devoted themselves and their estate to found and serve an hospital
near this priory, for the benefit of the poor that were afflicted
with this distemper: seven others joined them in their charitable
attendance on the sick, whence a confraternity of laymen who served
this hospital took its rise, and continued till Boniface VIII.
converted the Benedictin priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on
those hospitaller brothers, and giving them the religious rule of
regular canons of St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new
order, called Regular Canons of St. Antony. An abbey in Paris, which
belongs to this order, is called Little St. Antony's, by which name
it is distinguished from the great Cistercian nunnery of St.