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Antony's
Youth and First Struggles with Demons
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. 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 left all and followed
the Saviour; and how they in the Acts 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, “If thou wouldest
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow
Me and thou shalt 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.
3. And again as he went into the church, hearing the Lord say in the Gospel,
“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 practiced 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,” 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.
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 labor 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, “ 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 color 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 thee and thy labours as I
had many others, I proved weak.” When Antony asked, Who art thou 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
over-persuaded! I am he on account of whom also the prophet reproves those
who have fallen, saying, "Ye 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 thee
and have so often been overthrown by thee.” But Antony having given
thanks to the Lord, with good courage said to him, “ Thou art very
despicable then, for thou art black-hearted and weak as a child. Henceforth
I shall have no trouble from thee, "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.
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 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 endeavor 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
labor 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 shewed 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 other. 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 behoved 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, “
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 purpos. 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 efforts for advancement, often repeating
to himself the saying of Paul : “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, “the Lord lives before
whose presence I stand to-day.” For he observed that in saying
“to-day” 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.
Preface
Part I: Antony's Youth and First Struggles with Demons
Part II: He Dwells Among the Tombs
Part III: He Goes to the Desert
Part IV: His Sermon to the Young Men
Part V: His Life in the Desert
Part VI: He Goes to the Inner Desert
Part VII: Advice and Assistance for
Visitors
Part VIII: His Discourses Against Schismatics,
Arians, and Pagans
Part IX: His Growing Fame
Part X: His Death
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