AMMONIUS, Saint. — Descended from a wealthy family of Alexandria, he was a hermit and the principal founder of the monastic colonies in the Nitrian desert in Egypt. After 18 years of marriage, spent in perfect chastity, he retired (between 320 and 330) to the Nitrian desert, according to Palladius (Historia Lausiaca, ch. 18) and Sozomen (Hist. eccl., I, 14), to live there in solitude. Attracted by the fame of his virtues, many disciples gathered around him, and thus originated the celebrated centers of monastic life in the Nitrian desert. Esteemed and visited by St. Anthony the Abbot, he died before 385.
In the Greek Church his feast is celebrated on October 4; he does not appear in the Roman Martyrology.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Octobris, II, Antwerp 1768, pp. 413-20; Miracula, in Historia monachorum in Aegypto, ed. E. Preuschen, Palladius und Rufinus, Giessen 1807.