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St. Anthony-Abbot
Born - c.251
Died - 356 in Egypt

Feastday - 17 January

Statue created - c.1792-1793
Given the impossibility of restoring the first statue, because of its poor condition and bad travertine, it was redone.  The original, done between August 1670 and March 1673, was probably by Antonio Francesco Fontana.

Sculptor - Giuseppe Angelini
Angelini, the sculptor and restorer was given the work of redoing the previous statue.

Height - 3.1 m. (10ft 4in) travertine
The patriarch of monasticism is depicted as an old man, wrapped in a habit with a hood. He leans on his knee where he has an open book.  The right hand seems to hold a lost stick, an attribute tradional for a hermit. The pig at his feet is a specific attribute for him, an allusion to dirty thoughts he had while fighting demons in an abandoned fort.

St Anthony was a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers. The biography of Anthony's life by St Athanasius of Alexandria helped to spread the concept of monasticism.