The life of St. Anton, spiritual guide of hermits and of the first monasticism, who died in the mid-fourth century and whose feast has just been celebrated, was spread by St. Athanasius and popularized, like so many others, by Jacobus de la Voragine in the Golden Legend, in plenary session of the Executive Council thirteenth century, although his cult was already spreading by the Hospitaller Order of the Antonians, who remembered the saint for having distributed his goods among the poor and as a conqueror of many temptations. Towards the end of the Age average, the Antonians cared for the contagious sick, counting among their resources, the breeding of pigs that enjoyed the privilege of roaming the streets with their bells around their necks, being able to root in garbage and communal areas. In some localities, until recent times, the tradition of the "pig of San Antón" was maintained by the neighbors and then raffled.

Navarra had three Antonian seats in Tudela, Pamplona and Olite. In this last locality there was an encomienda, in the present monastery of Clarisas, on which depended the three Navarrese ones and those of Zaragoza, Calatayud and Huesca, Valencia, Orihuela, Barcelona, Cervera, Lérida, Tárrega, Valls and Palma de Mallorca. 

Among the patronages of the saint are numerous corporations: basket weavers because the solitary monks of La Tebaida were dedicated to weaving baskets and gravediggers, because St. Anton buried St. Paul a hermit in the desert, as we can see in numerous paintings, including one by Velázquez. However, most of his patronages have to do with domestic animals -in relation to the pig, his most popular attribute- and with the healing of the sick, as a healer saint.

The Antonians stood out for their attention and care of patients with ailments such as plague, leprosy, scabies and especially ergotism, known as "San Antón's fire". They had several establishments on the outskirts of the cities along the Camino de Santiago, where different therapies were practiced, as Juan Ramón Corpas has studied. The aforementioned disease attacked, mostly, the farmers of central and northern Europe, especially during autumn, after a warm and rainy summer, by eating rye bread contaminated by a fungus. 

In times when many illnesses, such as this one, had no cure and were attributed to divine punishment for sins committed, penance and prostration before the apostle James were advised. Among the therapies of the order were the touches with the Antonian staff and the distribution of scapulars, bread and wine. It should be noted that the mere fact of the change of per diem expenses was fundamental in the healing of many infected, because they, without knowing it, made wheat bread without the parasitic fungus.

The tau and other attributes
Saint Anthony Abbot is one of the saints who are best identified by the fact that he is always represented as a bearded old man -because he has reached 105 years of age- with a sackcloth and hood, and accompanied by the tau on his clothes and on the abbot's staff, the shearing, the pig and the flames of the "fire of Saint Anthony".

Regarding the tau, it should be remembered that it was interpreted as an apotropaic amulet and preservative against sudden death and contagious diseases. Its origin must be related to the text of Ezekiel that tries to save from death those marked with the tau. The exegetes of the saint interpreted it as a sign of the victories and triumphs that, by virtue of the Holy Cross, Saint Anton achieved over the devil, the hells and fire. Some authors made a curious digression on why the Antonians chose the tau, pointing out that the upper crossbar of the cross of Christ with the INRI should be related to "flowers, kingdoms and glories", not so the other parts of the same, linked to nails, pains, sorrows and torments that the saint wanted to embrace.

The pig at his feet alludes to the dominated lust, coming out triumphant in the numerous temptations narrated in texts and paintings of all schools and epochs (Grünewald, Bosch, Cézanne or Dalí). However, the people always interpreted it as an unmistakable sign of the protection of domestic animals, in times when the life of men depended on them, since they served them as financial aid and food.
The bell that accompanies so many children's portraits of past centuries, because it was understood that its sound kept away evil spirits, is assimilated in the case of the saint to the licence of the Antonians to ask for alms from the Roman authorities. It was also an attribute of hermits for its ability to repel the attacks of demons who fled from its noise, as well as from candlelight. The silver bells and the metal shears with the tau were typical of the houses of Antonians, the first for the religious, and the second for the livestock.

We have already referred to the flames of fire when dealing with the fire of Saint Anton, although we must also allude to the power that God gave him against fire. Rosary beads, an abbot's staff and the book of knowledge and of the founder complete his iconography. Sometimes the devil himself, in the form of a monster, appears at his feet, defeated and speared, as did the famous Francisco Salzillo.

The feast in our villages
The rural society, until a few decades ago, has celebrated its feast in different ways, but always with the protagonism of domestic animals. The celebrations in their honor are varied and abundant, undoubtedly the most important of the winter calendar. Jimeno Jurío recalls how his image was always present in stables and barns, as well as the obligation for the animals to rest on his feast day, and even to have a double ration of feed.

On January 17, foodstuffs were blessed, the famous bread of the saint, marked with the tau, as well as cereals and animal feed and in many cases the animals themselves. José María Iribarren gave a good account of numerous celebrations. The bonfires of the eve have been a constant in numerous localities, as well as the parade in front of the images of the saint and the bonfires. The "revueltillas" around their pillars or hermitages were practiced in the area average and the Ribera, while in the merindad of Sangüesa the animals paraded under a stole taken in their ends from balcony to balcony, while the priest proceeded to the blessing. In Fitero, a curious 1818 bando ordered that "no one should dare to take the horses running through the streets on the occasion of the turns that they usually make for the San Antonios, in order to avoid the misfortunes that could occur and whoever wants to go out is ordered to take them at the natural pace, under the penalty of three days in jail and the costs of imprisonment and jail".

The feast had its echoes in the cloistered monasteries, especially among the cooks. An example is the case of the Capuchin nuns of Tudela, where, on the eve of the feast, their image was taken to the kitchen and an altar was set up, where a Salve was sung and prayers were said, with arms crossed, for all the protectors of the house, living and deceased.

In Buñuel, for example, bread and cheese are still distributed and traditional bonfires are lit, as in many other towns. The novenas and joys to the saint were recited and sung in temples in front of his sculptures and paintings and, in some private homes, in front of holy cards and candlestick images of invoice popular. In general, their lyrics invoked him as a protector against the devil, fire, evil and pain.

Their confraternities in Navarre numbered a little more than three dozen. According to Gregorio Silanes, they were mostly located in the north (Bera, Zugarramurdi, Urdax, Goizueta, Erratzu, Sumbilla, Elizondo, Santesteban, Etxarri-Aranatz, Alsasua, Urdiain, Bacaicoa, Iturmendi, Lizoáin, Urricelqui, Ibiricu, Redín, Ardanaz, Yelz, Arzoz, Reta and Unciti), which is related to the response to some cattle epidemics, although several, such as Iturmendi, Iturmendi, Lizoáin, Urricelqui, Ibiricu, Redín, Ardanaz, Yelz, Arzoz, Reta and Unciti), which must be related to the response to some cattle epidemics, although several, such as Iturmendi and Urdiáin, grouped the muleteers who crossed, in the 17th century, the Urbasa mountain range, in a commercial crossing between the coast and the Castilian plateau. Other brotherhoods were located in Tafalla, Sangüesa, Corella, Tudela, Cascante, Monteagudo and Buñuel. The last one founded in 1945, with a welfare character, was in Fitero.

As for their representations, much more abundant in sculpture than in painting, those of the XVI century stand out for their issue and quality, both those belonging to the First Renaissance (El Busto, Genevilla, Uharte-Arakil, Irañeta, Esquíroz and Orkoien, among others, Uharte-Arakil, Irañeta, Esquíroz and Orkoien, among others) as well as those of a marked Romanesque style (Olazagutía, Narcue, Zubielqui, Arróniz, Jaurrieta, Añorbe or Ituren), with no lack of late Gothic and 16th century panels. In the XVII century the reliefs of the collateral of the cathedral of Pamplona and of the altarpiece of San Sebastián de Lodosa, the sculpture of the altarpiece in the sanctuary of Codés and some canvases stand out. From the 18th century are some delicate carvings such as the one in Cárcar, although most of them are from invoice popular. All of them are testimonies of a great veneration and a widespread cult throughout the villages of the region, as well as the issue of proverbs that have the saint as a protagonist in relation to the weather, the length of the day and the animals.

Prodigies and marvels
As would be expected in a hagiography of the Baroque period, which bears the rhetorical degree scroll Nacimiento, vida y milagros del terror de el infierno y pasmo de penitencia...(Pamplona, F. Picart, 1716), we find some miracles worked by the saint in the lands of Navarre, along with numerous portentous and fabulous events that its author, the Tudela-born and Antonian friar Manuel Liñán, relates, and which Ricardo Ollaquindia has made known. In particular, he focuses on three cases that occurred in Sangüesa, Caparroso and Tudela. The first one is related to a lady who, ignoring her maid, did not want to keep the feast of the saint with a frustrated laundry when the clothes began to burn. In Caparroso, in 1691, the miracle occurred when a cart with oxen fell down a ravine, leaving the load and animals safe thanks to the invocation to the saint made by several people who saw the event, and in Tudela the miracle occurred when a dreadful fire was suffocated by throwing a picture of the saint into the fire, a very frequent occurrence in other places.