Walla Walla University Martyrdom of Perpetua and St. Anthony Discussion

The Life of St. Anthony of Egypt
By Athanasius of Alexandria
Birth and beginnings of Antony.
1. Antony you must know was by descent an Egyptian: his parents were of good
family and possessed considerable wealth , and as they were Christians he also was
reared in the same Faith. In infancy he was brought up with his parents, knowing
nought else but them and his home. But when he was grown and arrived at
boyhood, and was advancing in years, he could not endure to learn letters, not
caring to associate with other boys; but all his desire was, as it is written of Jacob, to
live a plain man at home. Genesis 25:27 With his parents he used to attend the
Lord’s House, and neither as a child was he idle nor when older did he despise them;
but was both obedient to his father and mother and attentive to what was read,
keeping in his heart what was profitable in what he heard. And though as a child
brought up in moderate affluence, he did not trouble his parents for varied or
luxurious fare, nor was this a source of pleasure to him; but was content simply with
what he found nor sought anything further.
2. After the death of his father and mother he was left alone with one little sister: his
age was about eighteen or twenty, and on him the care both of home and sister
rested. Now it was not six months after the death of his parents, and going according
to custom into the Lord’s House, he communed with himself and reflected as he
walked how the Apostles Matthew 4:20 left all and followed the Saviour; and how
they in the Acts Acts 4:35 sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the
Apostles’ feet for distribution to the needy, and what and how great a hope was laid
up for them in heaven. Pondering over these things he entered the church, and it
happened the Gospel was being read, and he heard the Lord saying to the rich man
Matthew 19:21, ‘If you would be perfect, go and sell that you have and give to the
poor; and come follow Me and you shall have treasure in heaven.’ Antony, as though
God had put him in mind of the Saints, and the passage had been read on his
account, went out immediately from the church, and gave the possessions of his
forefathers to the villagers? they were three hundred acres , productive and very
fair? that they should be no more a clog upon himself and his sister. And all the rest
that was movable he sold, and having got together much money he gave it to the
poor, reserving a little however for his sister’s sake.
His early ascetic life.
3. And again as he went into the church, hearing the Lord say in the Gospel Matthew
6:34, ‘be not anxious for the morrow,’ he could stay no longer, but went out and
gave those things also to the poor. Having committed his sister to known and
faithful virgins, and put her into a convent to be brought up, he henceforth devoted
himself outside his house to discipline , taking heed to himself and training himself
with patience. For there were not yet so many monasteries in Egypt, and no monk at
all knew of the distant desert; but all who wished to give heed to themselves
practised the discipline in solitude near their own village. Now there was then in the
next village an old man who had lived the life of a hermit from his youth up. Antony,
after he had seen this man, imitated him in piety. And at first he began to abide in
places outside the village: then if he heard of a good man anywhere, like the prudent
bee, he went forth and sought him, nor turned back to his own palace until he had
seen him; and he returned, having got from the good man as it were supplies for his
journey in the way of virtue. So dwelling there at first, he confirmed his purpose not
to return to the abode of his fathers nor to the remembrance of his kinsfolk; but to
keep all his desire and energy for perfecting his discipline. He worked, however,
with his hands, having heard, ‘he who is idle let him not eat 2 Thessalonians 3:10,’
and part he spent on bread and part he gave to the needy. And he was constant in
prayer, knowing that a man ought to pray in secret unceasingly. For he had given
such heed to what was read that none of the things that were written fell from him
to the ground, but he remembered all, and afterwards his memory served him for
books.
4. Thus conducting himself, Antony was beloved by all. He subjected himself in
sincerity to the good men whom he visited, and learned thoroughly where each
surpassed him in zeal and discipline. He observed the graciousness of one; the
unceasing prayer of another; he took knowledge of another’s freedom from anger
and another’s loving-kindness; he gave heed to one as he watched, to another as he
studied; one he admired for his endurance, another for his fasting and sleeping on
the ground; the meekness of one and the long-suffering of another he watched with
care, while he took note of the piety towards Christ and the mutual love which
animated all. Thus filled, he returned to his own place of discipline, and henceforth
would strive to unite the qualities of each, and was eager to show in himself the
virtues of all. With others of the same age he had no rivalry; save this only, that he
should not be second to them in higher things. And this he did so as to hurt the
feelings of nobody, but made them rejoice over him. So all they of that village and
the good men in whose intimacy he was, when they saw that he was a man of this
sort, used to call him God-beloved. And some welcomed him as a son, others as a
brother.
Early conflicts with the devil.
5. But the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not endure to see such a
resolution in a youth, but endeavoured to carry out against him what he had been
wont to effect against others. First of all he tried to lead him away from the
discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth, care for his sister,
claims of kindred, love of money, love of glory, the various pleasures of the table and
the other relaxations of life, and at last the difficulty of virtue and the labour of it; he
suggested also the infirmity of the body and the length of the time. In a word he
raised in his mind a great dust of debate, wishing to debar him from his settled
purpose. But when the enemy saw himself to be too weak for Antony’s
determination, and that he rather was conquered by the other’s firmness,
overthrown by his great faith and falling through his constant prayers, then at
length putting his trust in the weapons which are ‘in the navel of his belly’ and
boasting in them? for they are his first snare for the young? he attacked the young
man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day, so that even the onlookers
saw the struggle which was going on between them. The one would suggest foul
thoughts and the other counter them with prayers: the one fire him with lust, the
other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting.
And the devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman
and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Antony. But he, his mind filled with Christ
and the nobility inspired by Him, and considering the spirituality of the soul,
quenched the coal of the other’s deceit. Again the enemy suggested the ease of
pleasure. But he like a man filled with rage and grief turned his thoughts to the
threatened fire and the gnawing worm, and setting these in array against his
adversary, passed through the temptation unscathed. All this was a source of shame
to his foe. For he, deeming himself like God, was now mocked by a young man; and
he who boasted himself against flesh and blood was being put to flight by a man in
the flesh. For the Lord was working with Antony? the Lord who for our sake took
flesh and gave the body victory over the devil, so that all who truly fight can say 1
Corinthians 15:10, ‘not I but the grace of God which was with me.’
6. At last when the dragon could not even thus overthrow Antony, but saw himself
thrust out of his heart, gnashing his teeth as it is written, and as it were beside
himself, he appeared to Antony like a black boy, taking a visible shape in accordance
with the colour of his mind. And cringing to him, as it were, he plied him with
thoughts no longer, for guileful as he was, he had been worsted, but at last spoke in
human voice and said, ‘Many I deceived, many I cast down; but now attacking you
and your labours as I had many others, I proved weak.’ When Antony asked, Who
are you who speakest thus with me? He answered with a lamentable voice, ‘I am the
friend of whoredom, and have taken upon me incitements which lead to it against
the young. I am called the spirit of lust. How many have I deceived who wished to
live soberly, how many are the chaste whom by my incitements I have overpersuaded! I am he on account of whom also the prophet reproves those who have
fallen, saying Hosea 4:12, You have been caused to err by the spirit of whoredom.
For by me they have been tripped up. I am he who have so often troubled you and
have so often been overthrown by you.’ But Antony having given thanks to the Lord,
with good courage said to him, ‘You are very despicable then, for you are blackhearted and weak as a child. Henceforth I shall have no trouble from you , for the
Lord is my helper, and I shall look down on mine enemies.’ Having heard this, the
black one straightway fled, shuddering at the words and dreading any longer even
to come near the man.
Details of his life at this time (271-285?)
7. This was Antony’s first struggle against the devil, or rather this victory was the
Saviour’s work in Antony , ‘Who condemned sin in the flesh that the ordinance of
the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.’ But
neither did Antony, although the evil one had fallen, henceforth relax his care and
despise him; nor did the enemy as though conquered cease to lay snares for him. For
again he went round as a lion seeking some occasion against him. But Antony having
learned from the Scriptures that the devices Ephesians 6:11 of the devil are many,
zealously continued the discipline, reckoning that though the devil had not been
able to deceive his heart by bodily pleasure, he would endeavour to ensnare him by
other means. For the demon loves sin. Wherefore more and more he repressed the
body and kept it in subjection , lest haply having conquered on one side, he should
be dragged down on the other. He therefore planned to accustom himself to a
severer mode of life. And many marvelled, but he himself used to bear the labour
easily; for the eagerness of soul, through the length of time it had abode in him, had
wrought a good habit in him, so that taking but little initiation from others he
showed great zeal in this matter. He kept vigil to such an extent that he often
continued the whole night without sleep; and this not once but often, to the marvel
of others. He ate once a day, after sunset, sometimes once in two days, and often
even in four. His food was bread and salt, his drink, water only. Of flesh and wine it
is superfluous even to speak, since no such thing was found with the other earnest
men. A rush mat served him to sleep upon, but for the most part he lay upon the
bare ground. He would not anoint himself with oil, saying it behooved young men to
be earnest in training and not to seek what would enervate the body; but they must
accustom it to labour, mindful of the Apostle’s words 2 Corinthians 12:10, ‘when I
am weak, then am I strong.’ ‘For,’ said he, ‘the fibre of the soul is then sound when
the pleasures of the body are diminished.’ And he had come to this truly wonderful
conclusion, ‘that progress in virtue, and retirement from the world for the sake of it,
ought not to be measured by time, but by desire and fixity of purpose.’ He at least
gave no thought to the past, but day by day, as if he were at the beginning of his
discipline, applied greater pains for advancement, often repeating to himself the
saying of Paul Philippians 3:14: ‘Forgetting the things which are behind and
stretching forward to the things which are before.’ He was also mindful of the words
spoken by the prophet Elias 1 Kings 18:15, ‘the Lord lives before whose presence I
stand today.’ For he observed that in saying ‘today’ the prophet did not compute the
time that had gone by: but daily as though ever commencing he eagerly
endeavoured to make himself fit to appear before God, being pure in heart and ever
ready to submit to His counsel, and to Him alone. And he used to say to himself that
from the life of the great Elias the hermit ought to see his own as in a mirror.
His life in the tombs, and combats with demons there.
8. Thus tightening his hold upon himself, Antony departed to the tombs, which
happened to be at a distance from the village; and having bid one of his
acquaintances to bring him bread at intervals of many days, he entered one of the
tombs, and the other having shut the door on him, he remained within alone. And
when the enemy could not endure it, but was even fearful that in a short time
Antony would fill the desert with the discipline, coming one night with a multitude
of demons, he so cut him with stripes that he lay on the ground speechless from the
excessive pain. For he affirmed that the torture had been so excessive that no blows
inflicted by man could ever have caused him such torment. But by the Providence of
God? for the Lord never overlooks them that hope in Him? the next day his
acquaintance came bringing him the loaves. And having opened the door and seeing
him lying on the ground as though dead, he lifted him up and carried him to the
church in the village, and laid him upon the ground. And many of his kinsfolk and
the villagers sat around Antony as round a corpse. But about midnight he came to
himself and arose, and when he saw them all asleep and his comrade alone
watching, he motioned with his head for him to approach, and asked him to carry
him again to the tombs without waking anybody.
9. He was carried therefore by the man, and as he was wont, when the door was shut
he was within alone. And he could not stand up on account of the blows, but he
prayed as he lay. And after he had prayed, he said with a shout, Here am I, Antony; I
flee not from your stripes, for even if you inflict more nothing shall separate me
Romans 8:35 from the love of Christ. And then he sang, ‘though a camp be set
against me, my heart shall not be afraid. ‘ These were the thoughts and words of this
ascetic. But the enemy, who hates good, marvelling that after the blows he dared to
return, called together his hounds and burst forth, ‘You see,’ said he, ‘that neither by
the spirit of lust nor by blows did we stay the man, but that he braves us, let us
attack him in another fashion.’ But changes of form for evil are easy for the devil, so
in the night they made such a din that the whole of that place seemed to be shaken
by an earthquake, and the demons as if breaking the four walls of the dwelling
seemed to enter through them, coming in the likeness of beasts and creeping things.
And the place was on a sudden filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls,
serpents, asps, scorpions, and wolves, and each of them was moving according to his
nature. The lion was roaring, wishing to attack, the bull seeming to toss with its
horns, the serpent writhing but unable to approach, and the wolf as it rushed on was
restrained; altogether the noises of the apparitions, with their angry ragings, were
dreadful. But Antony, stricken and goaded by them, felt bodily pains severer still. He
lay watching, however, with unshaken soul, groaning from bodily anguish; but his
mind was clear, and as in mockery he said, ‘If there had been any power in you, it
would have sufficed had one of you come, but since the Lord has made you weak,
you attempt to terrify me by numbers: and a proof of your weakness is that you take
the shapes of brute beasts.’ And again with boldness he said, ‘If you are able, and
have received power against me, delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why
trouble me in vain? For faith in our Lord is a seal and a wall of safety to us.’ So after
many attempts they gnashed their teeth upon him, because they were mocking
themselves rather than him.
10. Nor was the Lord then forgetful of Antony’s wrestling, but was at hand to help
him. So looking up he saw the roof as it were opened, and a ray of light descending
to him. The demons suddenly vanished, the pain of his body straightway ceased, and
the building was again whole. But Antony feeling the help, and getting his breath
again, and being freed from pain, besought the vision which had appeared to him, saying,
‘Where were thou? Why did you not appear at the beginning to make my pains to
cease?’ And a voice came to him, ‘Antony, I was here, but I waited to see your fight;
wherefore since you have endured, and hast not been worsted, I will ever be a
succour to you, and will make your name known everywhere.’ Having heard this,
Antony arose and prayed, and received such strength that he perceived that he had
more power in his body than formerly. And he was then about thirty-five years old.

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