Amun

Who they were

Amun, an Egyptian forced into marriage at 22, persuaded his wife on their wedding night to vow chastity with him; they lived together in chastity for eighteen years. Then he became a hermit in the desert of Nitria, and she formed a community of women in their house.

The fame of his holiness drew many hermits around him; by the end of the fourth century Nitria had fifty monasteries and five thousand monks, a place St Jerome called 'the City of God'.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

A desert father whose holiness drew thousands to the monastic life.

Connected on this site

• Anthony the Great Saint
  “He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Athanasius of Alexandria mentions him in his life of Anthony the Great.” — Wikipedia
• Athanasius of Alexandria Saint
  “He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Athanasius of Alexandria mentions him in his life of Anthony the Great.” — Wikipedia