Paul the first hermit, as Jerome testifies, who wrote his life, when the persecution of Decius was raging, went off to a most vast desert and there in a certain cave remained for sixty years, unknown to men. Now this Decius is said to have been Gallienus, who bore two names, who began in the year of the Lord two hundred and fifty-six. For holy Paul, seeing so many kinds of torments inflicted upon the Christians, fled into the desert. At that time, indeed, two young Christians were arrested, of whom one was smeared over his whole body with honey and, under the burning of the sun, was exposed to be lacerated by the stings of flies and hornets and wasps.
The other was placed upon a most soft bed and set in a most delightful spot, where there was a mildness of air, the murmur of streams, the song of birds and the fragrance of flowers. Yet with cords covered in flowery colors the youth was so bound that he could not help himself with hands or feet. There came a certain maiden, most beautiful in body and shameless, who shamelessly handled the youth, who was filled with the love of God. But when he had felt in his flesh motions contrary to reason, having no weapons by which to rescue himself from the enemy, he cut his own tongue with his teeth and spat it into the face of the shameless woman; and thus pain put the temptation to flight, and he earned a trophy worthy of praise. Terrified by these and other torments, holy Paul sought the desert.
At that time, when Antony was first thinking himself to be a desert-dweller among the monks, he was taught in dreams that another, far better than himself, dwelt in the desert. While he was searching for him through the woods, he met a hippocentaur, a man mixed with a horse, who showed him the right way. Afterward he met an animal bearing the fruits of palm-trees, marked above with the image of a man, but below having the form of a goat. When he adjured it by God to tell him who it was, it answered that it was a Satyr, a god of the woods according to the error of the heathen. Lastly a wolf met him, which led him to the cell of holy Paul. But Paul, sensing Antony beforehand, closed the door with a bolt.
But Antony begged that Paul would open to him, declaring that he would never depart from there, but would rather die in that place. Overcome, Paul opened to him, and at once the two rushed into each other's embrace. When the hour of the meal arrived, a raven brought a double portion of bread. And when Antony marveled at this, Paul answered that God ministered to him in this way every day, and had doubled the ration on account of his guest. A pious contest arose as to which of them was more worthy to divide the bread. Paul deferred to his guest, and Antony to the elder. At last both put their hands to it and divided the bread into equal parts. But as Antony was returning and already drawing near to his own cell, he saw angels bearing away the soul of Paul.
Returning swiftly, he found the body of Paul kneeling upright in the posture of one praying, so that he supposed him to be still alive. But when he learned that he was dead, he said: 「O holy soul, what you practiced in life you have shown forth in death.」 And since he had no means to provide a burial, behold, two lions came and prepared a grave, and when he had been buried they returned to the forest. Then Antony took up the tunic of Paul, woven of palm leaves, which afterward he wore on solemn feast days. Paul died about the year 287.