BOOK THREE
BOOK THREE
Antony’s Work for Others
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Persecution under Maximinus
AS ANTONY made this discourse, all rejoiced. It increased the love of virtue in some, in some it cast out carelessness, and in others it ended self-conceit. All were persuaded to despise the plottings of the devil, admiring the grace which God had given to Antony for the discerning of spirits.
The monasteries in the hills were like tents filled with heavenly choirs, singing, studying, fasting, praying, rejoicing for the hope of the life to come, laboring in order to give alms, having love and harmony among themselves. And in truth it was like a land of religion and justice to see, a land apart. For neither wronger nor wronged was there; nor plaint of tax-gathering; but a multitude of ascetics, all with one purpose to virtue; so that, looking back on the monasteries and on so fair an array of monks, one cried aloud saying: How lovely are thy dwellings, O Jacob, thy tents, O Israel; like shady groves, and like a garden by a river, and like tents that the Lord hath pitched, and like cedars beside the waters. (Num. 24:5–6).
Antony himself retired as usual to his own monastery by himself and went on with his holy life, groaning daily at thought of the mansions of Heaven, longing for them and seeing the shortness of man’s life. For when going to food and sleep and the other needs of the body, shame came on him, thinking of the spirituality of the soul. Often when he was to eat with many other monks, the thought of the spirit’s food came back on him, and he excused himself and went a long way from them, thinking it shame that he should be seen eating by others. Yet he ate alone, for the needs of the body; and often too with the brethren, ashamed on their account, but emboldened by the words of help he gave them. He used to say that we should give all our time to the soul, rather than to the body. A little time indeed we must of necessity allow to the body, but in the main we must devote ourselves to the soul and seek its profit, that it may not be dragged down by the pleasures of the body, but rather that the body be made subject to the soul, this being what the Saviour spoke of: Be not solicitous for your life what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on. (Luke 12:22). And seek not what you may eat or what you may drink, and be not lifted up; for all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and all these things shall be added to you. (Cf. Luke 12:29–31).
After this, the persecution which then befell under Maximinus overtook the Church. When the holy martyrs were taken to Alexandria, Antony also quitted his monastery and followed, saying, “Let us too go that we may suffer if we are called, or else may look on the sufferers.” He had a longing to be martyred, but not wishing to give himself up, he ministered to the confessors in the mines and in the prisons. In the hall of judgment he was full of zeal for those who were called, stirring them to generosity in their struggles, and in their martyrdom receiving them and escorting them to the end. Then the judge, seeing the fearlessness of Antony and his companions and their zeal in this work, gave orders that none of the monks should appear in the judgment hall, nor stay in the city at all. All the others thought best to be hidden that day, but Antony cared so much for it that he washed his tunic all the more, and on the next day stood on a high place in front and showed himself plainly to the prefect. While all wondered at this, and the prefect saw as he went through with his escort, Antony himself stood fearless, showing the eagerness that belongs to us Christians; for he was praying that he too might be martyred, as I have said. He himself mourned because he was not martyred, but God was keeping him to help us and others, that to many he might be a teacher of the strict life that he had himself learned from the Scriptures. For simply at seeing his behavior many were eager to become followers of his way of life. Again, therefore, he ministered as before to the confessors, and as though sharing their bonds, he wearied himself in serving them.
When later the persecution ceased, and the Bishop, Peter of blessed memory, had died a martyr, Antony departed and went back to his monastery and abode there, a daily martyr to conscience, fighting the fights of the faith. He practiced a high and more intense asceticism; he fasted constantly; his clothing was hair within and skin without, and this he kept till his death. He never bathed his body in water for cleanliness, nor even washed his feet, nor would he consent to put them in water at all without necessity. Neither was he ever seen undressed, nor till he died and was buried did any ever see the body of Antony uncovered.