Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER TWELVE
In the Heart of the Desert
(At Der Mar Antonios, Between the Nile and the Red Sea)
WHEN he retired and purposed to pass a season neither going forth himself nor admitting any, a certain captain of soldiers, Martinianus, came and disturbed him, for he had a daughter beset by a demon. As he stayed long, beating the door and asking him to come and pray to God for the child, Antony would not open, but leaned down from above and said, “Man, why do you cry to me? I am a man like yourself. But if you trust in Christ whom I serve, go, and as you trust, so pray to God, and it shall be done.” And he at once believing and calling on Christ, went away with his daughter made clean from the demon. Many other things did the Lord through Antony, for He says, Ask and it shall be given to you. (Luke 11:9). For though he opened not the door, very many sufferers simply slept outside the monastery, and trusted and prayed sincerely and were cleansed.
As he saw that many thronged to him and that he was not suffered to retire in his own way as he wished, being anxious lest from what the Lord did through him, either he himself should be lifted up (cf. 2 Cor. 12:6), or another should think about him above the truth, he looked around him and set out to go to the upper Thebaid, where he was not known. He had got loaves from the brethren and was sitting by the banks of the river watching if a boat should pass, that he might embark and go up with them. While he was thus minded, a voice came to him from above: “Antony, where are you going, and why?” He was not alarmed, being used to be often thus called; but listened and answered, “Since the crowds will not let me be alone, therefore I want to go to the upper Thebaid because of the many annoyances here, and especially because they ask me things beyond my power.” And the voice said to him, “Though you should go up to the Thebaid, or, as you are considering, down to the pastures, you will have greater and twice as great burden to bear. But if you wish to be really alone, go up now to the inner desert.” Antony said, “And who will show me the way, for I know it not?” And at once he was shown some Saracens setting out that way. Advancing and drawing near, Antony asked to go with them into the desert, and they welcomed him as though by the command of Providence. He traveled with them three days and three nights and came to a very high hill. There was water under the hill, perfectly clear, sweet and very cold; beyond was flat land, and a few wild date-palms.
Antony, as though moved by God, fell in love with the place, for this was the place indicated by the voice that spoke to him at the river bank. At the beginning he got bread from his fellow-travelers and abode alone on the hill, none other being with him, for he kept the place from then on as one who has found again his own home. The Saracens themselves, who had seen Antony’s earnestness, used to travel by that way on purpose and were glad to bring him bread; he had besides a small and frugal refreshment from the date-palms. Afterwards, when the brethren learned the place, they were careful to send to him, as children mindful of their father. But Antony, seeing that by occasion of the bread some were footsore and endured fatigue, and wishing to spare the monks in this matter also, took counsel with himself and asked some of those who visited him to bring him a pronged hoe, an axe, and some corn. When they were brought, he went over the ground about the hill, and finding a very small patch that was suitable, he tilled it and sowed it, having water in abundance from the spring. This he did every year, and had bread thence; being glad that he should trouble no one on this account, but in all things kept himself from being a burden. But later, seeing that people were coming to him again, he grew a few vegetables also, that the visitor might have some little refreshment after the weariness of that hard road. At first the beasts in the desert used to often damage his crops and his garden when they came for water, but he, catching one of the beasts, said graciously to all, “Why do you harm me when I do not harm you? Begone, and in the name of the Lord do not come near these things again.” And thereafter, as though fearing his command, they did not approach the place.
He then was alone in the inner hills, devoting himself to prayer and spiritual exercise. But the brethren who ministered to him asked that they might bring him each month olives and oil, for he was now an old man.
How many wrestlings he endured while he dwelt there we have learned from those who visited him: not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), as it is written, but against opposing demons. For there also they heard tumults and many voices and clashing as of weapons, and at night they saw the hill full of wild beasts, and him they saw fighting as with visible foes and praying against them. His visitors he comforted, but he himself fought, bending his knees and entreating the Lord. And it was indeed a thing to admire, that being alone in such a wilderness, he was neither dismayed by the attacks of devils, nor with so many four-footed and creeping things there, did he fear their savageness, but according to the Scripture (Ps. 124:1), he trusted the Lord truly like Mount Sion, with a mind tranquil and untossed; so that rather the devils fled, and the wild beasts kept peace with him, as it is written.
Thus the devil watched Antony and gnashed his teeth against him, as David says in the psalm (Ps. 111:10), while Antony had consolations from the Saviour and abode unharmed by his wickedness and his many arts. He set wild beasts on him when watching at night. Almost all the hyenas in that desert, coming out from their dens, surrounded him. He was in their midst, and each with open mouth threatened to bite him. But knowing the enemy’s craft, he said to them all, “If you have received power over me, I am ready to be eaten by you, but if you are sent by devils, delay not, but go, for I am Christ’s servant.” On this they fled, his words chasing them like a whip.
A few days after, while he was working (for he was careful to work), someone stood at the door and pulled the string of his work, for he was weaving baskets, which he gave to his visitors in exchange for what they brought. He rose and saw a beast resembling a man as far as the thighs, but with legs and feet like a donkey. Antony simply crossed himself and said, “I am Christ’s servant; if you are sent against me, here I am,” and the monster with its demons fled so fast that for very speed it fell and died. And the death of the beast was the demons’ fall, for they were hasting to do everything to drive him back from the desert, and they could not.