Life of Antony 1 part 5/5

Then those present, becoming trembling and greatly afraid, begged to learn from him;

and they pressed him much until, compelled, he should speak.

And he, thus groaning greatly,

O children, he said, it were better to die before the things of the vision come to pass.

And when they again pressed him, weeping he said:

Wrath is about to overtake the Church, and she is about to be handed over to men like irrational beasts.

For I saw the table of the Lord's house, and standing about it on every side in a circle mules, and kicking the things within just as kicks would come from beasts disorderly leaping.

Surely, he said, you perceived how I groaned;

for I heard a voice saying:

My altar shall be defiled.

And after two years there occurred the present onslaught of the Arians, and the plundering of the churches, when, seizing the [sacred] vessels by force, they had them carried by heathen;

when they also forced the heathen from the workshops to assemble with them;

and in their presence did upon the [holy] table as they pleased.

[Then we all understood that] the Arians act irrationally like the beasts.

But when he had seen this vision, he exhorted those with him, saying:

for just as the Lord was angered, so again will he heal.

And again the Church will quickly recover her own beauty, and as usual will shine forth;

and you shall see those who were persecuted restored, and impiety again withdrawing into its own dens, but the devout faith speaking out boldly with all freedom everywhere;

only do not defile yourselves with the Arians.

For this is not the teaching of the apostles, but of the demons, and of their father the devil;

and it is rather barren, and irrational, and of an unsound mind, like the irrationality of mules.

Such, then, were the things of Antony.

But we ought not to be unbelieving, if through a man such great wonders have come to pass.

For it is the Savior's promise, who says:

If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain:

Move from here, and it shall move;

and nothing shall be impossible for you.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

And he it is who says to the disciples, and to all who believe in him:

freely you have received, freely give.

Antony, then, did not heal by commanding, but by praying and naming Christ;

so that it was manifest to all that it was not he who did it, but the Lord, who through Antony showed his love for humankind and healed the sufferers.

But Antony's part was only the prayer and the asceticism, for the sake of which, sitting in the mountain, he rejoiced in the contemplation of divine things, but was grieved at being troubled by many and dragged to the outer mountain.

For indeed all the judges asked him to come down from the mountain, since it was not possible for them to go in there, on account of the litigants who followed them.

Yet they kept asking, that he might come and they might only see him;

he, then, would avoid and decline the journeys to these, but they persisted, and rather sent on to him those under accusation, under [guard of] soldiers;

so that at least, on those men's account, he might come down.

Suffering compulsion, then, and seeing them lamenting, he would come to the outer mountain;

yet his trouble was again not without profit;

for to many his coming became a benefit and a help.

And he benefited the judges, counseling them to prefer justice above all things;

and to fear God, and to know that with whatever judgment they judge, they shall be judged.

Nevertheless, the abode in the mountain he loved above all things.

Once, then, having suffered such compulsion from those who had need, and the general having through many entreaties asked him to come down;

he came, and having conversed a little of the things pertaining to salvation, and concerning those in need, he hastened away.

And when the so-called duke asked him to tarry, he said that he could not linger with them, and by a graceful example he persuaded him, saying:

Just as fish, lingering on the dry land, die, so monks, tarrying with you, and passing their time among you, grow slack.

[We must hasten to the mountain,] lest by lingering we forget the things within.

And when the general heard these things from him, and many others, he marveled, and said that this man was truly a servant of God;

for whence to an unlettered man such and so great an understanding, unless he were beloved of God? Now there was a certain general, Balacius by name, who bitterly persecuted us Christians on account of his zeal for the ill-named Arians.

And since he was so savage that he even beat virgins and stripped and scourged monks;

Antony sent to him, and wrote a letter having such a sense:

Cease, therefore, persecuting Christians, lest wrath overtake you;

for it is already about to come upon you.

But Balacius, laughing, threw the letter to the ground, spat upon it, and insulted those who had brought it, charging them to report these things to Antony:

Since you are so concerned about the monks, I will now come after you as well.

And not five days had passed, and the wrath overtook him.

For Balacius himself, and Nestorius the prefect of Egypt, went out to the first stopping-place of Alexandria, called Chaireou, and both were riding on horses;

and these [horses] were Balacius's own, and the gentlest of all that were reared by him.

But before they had yet reached the place, [the horses] began to play, as is their wont, with one another;

and suddenly the gentler one, on which Nestorius was riding, throwing Balacius down with a bite, fell upon him;

and so it mangled his thigh with its teeth, that he was at once carried away to the city, and within three days died;

and all marveled that what Antony had foretold was quickly fulfilled.

Thus, then, he admonished the harsher ones;

but the others who came to him he so admonished that they forgot at once their lawsuits, and counted blessed those who withdraw from this life.

And he so championed those who were wronged, that one would think it was not others, but himself who was the sufferer.

And again he was so capable for the benefit of all, that many who were soldiers, and of those who possessed much, laid aside the burdens of this life, and thenceforth became monks.

And in short, he was as a physician given by God to Egypt.

For who came grieving, and did not return rejoicing? Who came mourning for his dead, and did not at once lay aside his sorrow? Who came angry, and was not changed to friendliness? What poor man came in despondency, and, hearing him and seeing him, did not despise wealth and find comfort in his poverty? What monk, having grown negligent, came to him, and did not become rather stronger? What young man, coming to the mountain and beholding Antony, did not at once renounce pleasures and love self-control? Who came to him tempted by a demon, and did not find rest? And who came troubled by [evil] thoughts, and did not become calm in mind? For this too was a great thing in Antony's asceticism, that, as I said before, having the gift of discernment of spirits, he recognized their movements;

and as to that toward which any of them had its eagerness and impulse, this he did not fail to know.

And not only was he himself not mocked by them, but also those who were troubled by [evil] thoughts he comforted and taught how they might be able to overturn the plots of those [demons];

recounting the weaknesses and the cunning devices of those that were at work.

Each one, then, as if anointed by him, would go down emboldened against the devices of the devil and of his demons.

And how many virgins who had suitors, merely seeing Antony from across the way, remained virgins for Christ? And they came to him also from the regions outside.

And these too, having received benefit along with all the rest, returned, as though sent forth by a father.

Indeed, when he had fallen asleep, all, as having become orphans of a father, comfort themselves with his memory alone, holding fast at the same time to his admonitions and exhortations.

What sort, too, the end of his life was, it is worthy that I should recount, and that you who long for it should hear;

for this too of his has become a thing to be emulated.

According to his custom he was visiting the monks in the outer mountain, and having learned beforehand from Providence concerning his own end, he spoke to the brethren, saying:

[This is the last time that] we shall behold one another in this life.

It is time for me also now to depart;

for I am near a hundred and five years.

When they heard, then, they wept, and embraced and kissed the old man;

but he, as one setting out from a foreign country to his own city, conversed rejoicing;

and he charged them not to grow slack in their labors, nor to lose heart in their asceticism;

but to live as though dying daily;

and, as I said before, to be earnest to guard the soul from foul thoughts;

and to have zeal toward the saints, but not to approach the Meletian schismatics;

for you know their wicked and profane purpose;

neither to have any communion with the Arians;

for indeed the impiety of these too is manifest to all.

And even if you see the judges supporting them, do not be troubled;

for it will cease, and their show is mortal and short-lived.

Keep yourselves, then, all the more pure from these, and observe both the tradition of the Fathers, and above all the devout faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, which you have learned from the Scriptures, and of which you have often been reminded by me.

And when the brethren pressed him to remain with them, and be perfected there, he would not consent, for many reasons, as he himself indicated even by his silence, and chiefly for this:

the Egyptians love to bury and wrap in linen cloths the bodies of the diligent who have died, and especially of the holy martyrs;

but not to hide them beneath the earth, but to place them on couches, and to keep them within, with themselves;

thinking that in this they honor those who have departed.

But Antony often asked even the bishops concerning this, to charge the people [against it];

and likewise he rebuked the laity, and reproached the women, saying that this was neither lawful nor at all holy.

For the bodies of the patriarchs and of the prophets are preserved even until now in tombs;

and the very body of the Lord was laid in a tomb, and a stone, placed over it, hid it, until he rose on the third day.

And saying these things, he showed that the one who does not, after death, hide the bodies of the departed, even if they be holy, transgresses the law.

For what is greater or holier than the body of the Lord? Many, then, hearing, henceforth hid [the dead] beneath the earth, and gave thanks to the Lord, having been well taught.

But he himself, knowing this, and fearing lest they should treat his own body so, hastened, having taken leave of the monks in the outer mountain;

and entering the inner mountain, where he was wont to dwell, after a few months he fell sick;

and calling those who were with him (there were two who had also remained within, practicing asceticism for fifteen years, and ministering to him on account of his old age), he said to them:

I, for my part, as it is written, am going the way of the fathers;

for I see myself being called by the Lord;

but do you be vigilant, and do not lose your long-continued asceticism;

but as though now having a beginning, be earnest to keep your eagerness.

You know the demons who lie in wait; you know how savage they are, but feeble in power.

Do not, then, fear them, but rather breathe Christ always, and trust in him;

and live as though dying daily, taking heed to yourselves, and remembering the exhortations you have heard from me.

And let there be no communion to you with the schismatics, nor at all with the heretical Arians.

For you know how I too avoided them, on account of their Christ-fighting and heterodox heresy.

But be earnest, you also, always to join yourselves, first and foremost to the Lord, and then to the saints;

that after death they too may receive you into the eternal tabernacles, as friends and acquaintances.

Consider these things, set your minds on these things;

remember [me] as a father; do not allow anyone to take my body into Egypt, lest they lay it up in the houses.

For it was for this reason that I withdrew into the mountain and came here.

You know, too, how I always rebuked those who did this, and charged them to cease from such a custom.

Therefore bury what is mine yourselves, and hide it beneath the earth;

and let this word of mine be kept by you, so that no one knows the place except you alone.

For at the resurrection of the dead I shall receive it back incorruptible from the Saviour.

And give to Athanasius the bishop the one sheepskin cloak and the garment I used to lie upon, which he himself gave me new but which has grown old with me;

and give to Serapion the bishop the other sheepskin cloak;

and you yourselves keep the hair-cloth garment.

And for the rest, farewell, my children;

for Antony is departing, and is no longer with you.

When he had said this, and they had kissed him, he stretched out his feet; and beholding, as it were, friends who had come for him, and made exceedingly glad on their account—for he appeared as he lay with a cheerful countenance—he breathed his last and was gathered to the fathers.

And they, accordingly, just as he had commanded them, having wrapped and buried his body, hid it beneath the earth; and no one to this day knows where it is hidden, except those two alone.

And each of those who received the sheepskin cloak of the blessed Antony, and the worn garment that was his, keeps it as some great treasure.

For even when he looks upon them, it is as though he were gazing on Antony himself;

and when he puts them on, it is as though with joy he were bearing Antony's admonitions.

This is the end of Antony's life in the body, and that was the beginning of his ascetic discipline.

And even if these things are small in comparison with his virtue, yet from them do you also estimate what manner of man the man of God Antony was—who from his youth even to so great an age preserved an equal eagerness for ascetic discipline;

and who neither, on account of old age, was overcome by sumptuous food, nor, because of the weakness of his body, changed the fashion of his clothing, or even washed his feet with water;

and yet in all things he remained unharmed.

For indeed he kept his eyes uninjured and sound, seeing well;

and not one of his teeth had fallen out,

only they had become worn down toward the gums, on account of the old man's great age.

In his feet and hands too he remained healthy; and altogether he appeared more radiant and more vigorous in strength than all those who make use of varied food and baths and diverse garments.

And the fact that he was famed everywhere, and was marvelled at by all, and longed for even by those who had never seen him, is a token of his virtue and of his God-loving soul.

For it was not from writings, nor from outward wisdom, nor through any art, but solely through piety toward God that Antony became known.

And that this was a gift of God, no one could deny.

For how else, in Spain and in Gaul, how in Rome and in Africa, was he heard of—he who sat hidden in a mountain—unless it were God who everywhere makes His own people known, and who had promised this to Antony from the beginning? For even if they themselves act in secret, and wish to remain unnoticed,

yet the Lord shows them to all like lamps, so that those who hear may thus know that the commandments are able to bring men to perfection, and may take up zeal for the way that leads to virtue.

Those who hide themselves and are eager to withdraw, He everywhere makes manifest and renowned, both for the sake of their virtue and for the benefit of others.

And if there be need, read this also to the heathen;

that even so they may recognize that our Lord Jesus Christ is not only God and the Son of God,

but also that those who genuinely serve Him and devoutly believe in Him—the demons, whom the Greeks themselves suppose to be gods—these the Christians prove to be no gods at all, and moreover they trample them down and put them to flight as deceivers and corrupters of mankind, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages.