Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Miracles
THIS was his instruction to those who visited him: To sufferers he gave compassion and prayed with them, and often the Lord heard him in many ways. He neither boasted when he was heard, nor murmured when not, but always gave thanks to God and urged the sufferers to be patient and to know that healing belonged not to him nor to any man, but to God who doeth when He will and to whom He will. The sufferers took the old man’s words in place of healing, since they had learned to suffer with patience and not with shrinking, and the cured learned not to thank Antony, but God alone.
A man named Fronton from Palatium had a terrible disease, for he was biting his tongue, and his eyes were in danger. He came to the hill and begged Antony to pray for him. When he had prayed, he said to Fronton, “Depart and you shall be healed.” Fronton objected and for days stayed in the house, while Antony continued saying, “You cannot be healed while you stay here. Go, and when you reach Egypt, you shall see the sign that is wrought on you.” The man believed and went, and as soon as he came in sight of Egypt, he was freed from his sickness and made well, according to the word of Antony, which he had learned from the Saviour in prayer.
A girl from Busiris in Tripoli had a dreadful and distressing sickness, a discharge from eyes, nose and ears, which turned to worms when it fell to the ground; and her body was paralyzed and her eyes unnatural. Her parents, hearing of monks who were going to Antony, and having faith in the Lord who healed the woman troubled with an issue of blood (Matt. 9:20), asked to accompany them with their daughter, and they consented. The parents and their child remained below the hill with Paphnutius, the confessor and monk. The others went up, but when they wished to tell about the girl, Antony interrupted them and described the child’s sufferings and how they had traveled with them. On their asking that these also might come to him, he would not allow it, but said, “Go, and you will find her cured if she is not dead. For this is not my work, that she should come to a wretched man like me, but healing is the Saviour’s, who doeth His mercy in all places to them that call on Him. To this child also the Lord hath granted her prayer, and His love has made known to me that He will heal her sickness while she is there.” So the marvel came to pass, and going out they found the parents rejoicing and the girl in sound health.
Two of the brethren were traveling to him when the water failed, and one died and the other was dying; he had no longer strength to go [on], and lay on the ground awaiting death. But Antony, sitting on the hill, called two monks who happened to be there and urged them, saying, “Take a jar of water and run down the road towards Egypt, for two were coming, and one has just died, and the other will if you do not hasten. This has just been shown me in prayer.” The monks therefore went and found the one lying a corpse and buried him; the other they revived with water and brought him to the old man, for the distance was a day’s journey. If anyone asks why he did not speak before the other died, he asks amiss in so speaking. For the sentence of death was not from Antony, but from God, who so decreed about the one and revealed concerning the other. In Antony this only is wonderful, that while he sat on the hill and watched in heart, the Lord revealed to him things afar.
For another time also, as he was sitting there and looking up, he saw in the air someone borne along, and great rejoicing in all that met him. Wondering at such a choir and thinking of their blessedness, he prayed to learn what this might be. And at once a voice came to him that this was the soul of the monk Amun in Nitria. He had lived as an ascetic till old age. Now the distance from Nitria to the hill where Antony was thirteen days’ journey. Those who were with Antony, seeing the old man in admiration, asked to know and heard from him that Amun had just died. He was well known because he often visited there and because through him also many miracles had come to pass, of which this is one. Once, when he had need to cross the river called the Lycus, the waters being in flood, he asked his companion Theodore to keep far from him that they might not see each other naked in swimming the river. Theodore went, but he was again ashamed to see himself naked. While, therefore, he was ashamed and pondering, he was suddenly carried to the other side. Theodore, himself a devout man, came up, and seeing that Amun was first and unwetted by the water, asked to know how he had crossed. And seeing that he did not wish to speak, he seized his feet, declaring that he would not let him go till he had heard. Amun, seeing Theodore’s obstinacy, especially from his speech, asked him in turn not to tell anyone till his death, and then told him that he had been carried across and set down on the other side, that he had not walked on the water, and that this was a thing not possible to men, but only to the Lord and those to whom He granted it, as He did to the great Apostle Peter. (Matt. 14:29). And Theodore told this after Amun’s death.
Now the monks to whom Antony spoke of Amun’s death noted the day, and when, thirty days later, the brethren came from Nitria, they inquired and found that Amun had fallen asleep at the day and hour when the old man saw his soul carried up. And both these and the others were all amazed how pure was the soul of Antony, that he should learn at once what happened thirteen days away and should see the soul in its flight.
Again, Archelaus the Count once met him in the outer hills and asked him only to pray for Polycratia, the renowned and Christ-like virgin of Laodicea, for she was suffering much in her stomach and side, through her great mortifications, and was weak throughout her body. Antony therefore prayed, and the Count made a note of the day when the prayer was made, and departing to Laodicea, found the virgin well. Asking when and on what day she was freed from her sickness, he brought out the paper on which he had written the time of the prayer; and when he heard, he immediately showed the writing on the paper, and all recognized with wonder that the Lord had freed her from her pains at the moment when Antony was praying and invoking the goodness of the Saviour on her behalf.
Often he spoke days beforehand of those who were coming to him, and sometimes a month before, and of the cause for which they came. For some came simply to see him, some through sickness, some suffering from devils. And all thought the toil of the journey no trouble or loss, for each returned feeling helped. Antony, while he said and saw such things, begged that none should admire him in this regard, but rather should admire the Lord, who grants to us men to know Him in our own measure.
Another time, when he had gone down to the outer monasteries and was asked to enter a ship and pray with the monks, he alone perceived a horrible, pungent smell. The crew said that there was fish and pickled meat in the boat and that the smell was from them, but he said it was different; and even as he spoke, came a sudden shriek from a young man having a devil, who had come on board earlier and was hiding in the vessel. Being charged in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the devil went out, and the man was made whole, and all knew that the foul smell was from the evil spirit.
Another came to him, one of the nobles, having a devil. This demon was so dreadful that the possessed man did not know he was going to Antony; also he used to eat the filth of his own body. Those who brought him begged Antony to pray for him, and Antony, pitying the youth, prayed and watched the whole night with him. Towards dawn, the youth suddenly sprang on Antony, pushing him. His friends were indignant, but Antony said, “Do not be angry with the youth; it is not he, but the demon in him, for being rebuked and commanded to depart into waterless places, he became furious and has done this. Therefore, glorify God, for his attacking me in this way is a sign to you of the demon’s going.” And when Antony had said this, the youth was at once made whole and then, in his right mind, recognized where he was and embraced the old man, thanking God.