Antonios 12 is St Anthony the Younger. His Life, the Vita Antonii Iunioris, survives in three fragments, BHG 142, BHG 143, and BHG 142 Addit. (Halkin, Anal. Boll. 62 (1944).

Son of Photeinos 5 and Eirene 5, he was born in 785 at Phossaton (near Jerusalem) in Palestine: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 2. On the date, see below. His given name was Ioannes and he took the name Antonios on becoming a monk: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 9-22, 24, 31. In Theophanes Continuatus he is only called Ioannes: Theoph. Cont. IV 25 (pp. 180ff.). He had a brother (name unknown) and a sister, Theodoule 1: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 10.

While a child he was taken to see a hermit, Ioannes 156, in the hills near his home; according to the Vita, Ioannes foretold that he would leave Syria, govern several Roman cities and spend the last forty years of his life as a monk: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 9. When he was still in adolescence, his mother died and his father remarried; he left Phossaton then with his brother and sister and they settled in Attaleia in Pamphylia: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 10. He attracted the attention of the local fleet commander at Attaleia and took service in the navy, serving under the trierarch and eventually being promoted by the emperor Michael II (Michael 10) to the post of ek prosopou of the Kibyrrhaiotai theme: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 11. The date was early in Michael 10's reign, c. 821/822. He took stern measures against supporters of the rebellion of Thomas 7 (AD 822/823) and afterwards spent ten months in Constantinople: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 12-14. On returning to the area of his office he repelled attacks from a band of Arab pirates (AD 824/825): Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 15-18. His seat of authority was Syllaion in Pamphylia; cf. Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 43. He was now contemplating marriage but received a reminder from the hermit Ioannes 156 about the earlier prophecy, which deterred him and decided him to abandon the world and become a monk; accompanied only by a trusted attendant, Theodoros 111, he slipped away secretly and went to a stylite priest, Eustratios 4, who gave them both the tonsure; they donned monastic garb and assumed the names Antonios and Sabas respectively: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 19-22, cf. Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 143) (ἐξ ἀρχοντίκης ἀξίας τῇ μοναδικῇ προσελθών πολιτείᾳ). The emperor and the authorities tried to recapture him to punish him for abandoning his post as ek prosopou, but were supposedly deterred by divine warnings Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142). The date was 825, and he was ek prosopou of Kibyrrhaiotai from c. 821 to 825. Antonios 12 and his attendant (Theodoros 111) made their way via Amorion to Nikaia, where they lived in seclusion for nine months, then Antonios 12 went alone to Mt Olympus in Bithynia, built himself a hermit's cell, known as Pandemos, close to a monastery known as the monastery of the Eunuchs, and put himself under the guidance of Iakobos 5, a hermit and former bishop of Anchialos: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 25-30, (BHG 142 Addit.) 6.

Early in the reign of the emperor Theophilos 5 (AD 829/830) charges were brought against him that he had unjustly confiscated the property of supporters of Thomas the Slav (Thomas 7) and he was delivered by the emperor to Stephanos 56 who conducted the enquiry and kept him in custody in Constantinople for five months, treating him sometimes mildly and sometimes with great brutality: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 31-33. On his release he secured the support of the unnamed daughter of a powerful person and returned to his cell of the Pandemos: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 34-35. When his master Iakobos 5 died, Antonios 12 made sure that his body remained at the monastery of the Eunuchs, in spite of the efforts of the former empress Prokopia 1 to remove it: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 36-38. Antonios 12 now went to live at a place called Briles, near a chapel of St Panteleemon, where he was rejoined, after a separation of several years, by his former attendant and now his disciple, Sabas (Theodoros 111): Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 39-40. The two were regular guests of the former bishop of Plousias, Paulos 27, and at one meal a fellow guest from Pamphylia recognised Antonios 12 as the former governor there: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142) 41-43, cf. Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 143) 5 (Paulos 27 persuaded him to wear sandals).

After long years of hardship as a hermit he chose to change to the coenobitic life and entered a monastery at Kios in Bithynia; the hegoumenos Ignatios 5 subjected him to severe tests of obedience before he admitted him to the community: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 143) 1-5, cf. 6 (his long years in the wilderness).

During the persecution under Theophilos 5, Ignatios 5 died in exile and Antonios 12 withdrew to Pandemos where he remained in safety until the death of Theophilos 5 (in 842): Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 1-2. At the time of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (AD 843) Antonios was still living on the mountain where in a vision he was warned that although Orthodoxy was now restored worse troubles were to follow after an interval (interpreted as referring to the overthrow of Ignatios 1 and his replacement by Photios 1): Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 3-4. He now left the vicinity of the monastery of the Eunuchs and went to the monastery of Heraklion where the hegoumenos Makarios 5 and the monks welcomed him with enthusiasm Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 4. Finding his time too occupied for contemplation he asked permission to return to the wilderness; Makarios 5 tried to dissuade him but finally sent him to live in the monastery of All Saints, a metochion of Heraklion at Constantinople but situated in a quiet location there; Antonios 12 was able to pursue a life of asceticism and contemplation in total seclusion there: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 5-6. The date was 848. For seven years he never left the monastery and received no visitors from outside; then, under pressure from his colleagues, he abandoned his seclusion and began to receive visits: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 7. The date was 855. Among those he now helped was the monk, Ephraim 1, and the servant of one of his compatriots (unnamed, from Palestine, presumably) (cf. Anonymus 742 and Anonymus 743): Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 8-9.

He also met Petronas 5, the uncle of the emperor (Michael III, Michael 11), and helped him regain his health; he also helped cure Petronas 5's son (Marianos 5); after this Petronas 5 grew very attached to Antonios 12 and even contemplated abandoning the world himself and becoming a monk, but was dissuaded by Antonios 12, who convinced him that he could best serve God by remaining in the world: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 10-12. In 863, while en route to Ephesos, Antonios 12 encountered Petronas 5 leading an army to combat Arab forces raiding Roman territory in Asia under Amr 2; he accompanied him to the fort of Plateia Petra: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 14. He advised Petronas 5 that if, contrary to the orders of the emperor, he were to meet the Arabs in battle, victory was certain to be his; Petronas 5 therefore joined battle and destroyed the Arab armies, killing their commander Amr 2: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 15. This was the battle of Poson, on 3 September 863.

The story is told slightly differently in Theophanes Continuatus; Ioannes (sic) was a famous monk living on Mt Latros, the Holy Mountain near Ephesus; he was known never to emerge from his cell; however, when Petronas 5 was in the area with orders to mount an expedition against the Arabs, Ioannes (i.e. Antonios 12) came to meet him and told him to proceed with confidence because God was protecting him and he should place on the soldiers' shields the image of St John the Divine as protection; after the campaign ended in triumph, Petronas 5 praised the monk's advice and foresight as inspired: Theoph. Cont. IV 25 (pp. 180-181, 183), cf. Zon. XVI 3. 22 (unnamed monk, who foretold the victory of Petronas). Thereafter Petronas 5 had Antonios 12 to live with him in his house at Constantinople: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 16.

At the age of eighty Antonios 12 fell ill and retired to the monastery of Leo the Deacon, where he died; the death of Petronas 5 occurred at the same time: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 17-18, cf. Theoph. Cont. IV 25 (pp. 183-184) (he predicted his own death and foretold that the death of Petronas 5 would follow soon afterwards). The date of Antonios 12's death was 11 November; at that time Antonios had been a monk for forty years, twenty-three of them away from Constantinople and the other seventeen in Constantinople: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 20. The chronology is discussed by F. Halkin, "Saint Antoine le Jeune et Petronas le vainqueur des arabes en 863 (d'après un texte inédit)", Anal. Boll.. 62 (1944), pp. 195-197, who shows that the date of his death was 865. The other dates follow from this. A primary source for the information contained in the Life was one of Antonios 12's own disciples, Iakobos 6: Vita Anton. Iun. (BHG 142 Addit.) 19.

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