BOOK FOUR
BOOK FOUR
Antony’s Last Years
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
His Devotion to God’s Church
ANTONY was by disposition long suffering and humble of soul. Being what he was, he yet reverenced the law of the Church exceedingly, and he would have every cleric honored above himself. He was not ashamed to bow his head before bishops and priests, and if ever a deacon came to him to seek help, he spoke what was needed to help him, but in regard to prayers he gave place to him, thinking it no shame that he too should be taught. For often he would ask questions and beg to hear his companions and acknowledge that he was helped if one said something useful. His face had a grace in it great and beyond belief. And he had this further gift from the Saviour: if he was with a company of monks and someone wished to see him who did not know him before, as soon as he arrived, he would pass over the others and run straight to Antony as if drawn by his eyes. Not by appearance or figure was he different from others, but by his ordered character and the purity of his soul. For his soul being at peace, he had his outer senses also untroubled, so that from the joy of the soul his face also was joyous, and from the body’s movements one saw and knew the state of his soul, according to the Scripture: When the heart is merry, the face is glad; when in grief, the face is gloomy. (Prov. 15:13). So Jacob knew that Laban was devising a plot and said to his wives: Your father’s countenance is not as yesterday and the day before. (Gen. 31:5). So Samuel knew David, for he had eyes that moved joy and teeth white as milk (cf. 1 Kgs. 16:12). And so too was Antony known, for he was never troubled, his soul being tranquil; he was never gloomy, his mind being glad.
To the Faith his devotion was wonderful. He never held communion with the Meletian schismatics, knowing their wickedness and rebellion from the beginning, nor had friendly converse with the Manichees, nor any other heretics, save only to warn them to return to their duty, believing and teaching that their friendship and society was a harm and ruin to the soul. So also he loathed the Arian heresy and taught all neither to go near them nor partake in their ill-faith. Once when some of the Ariomanites came to him and he questioned them and found them misbelievers, he drove them from the hill, saying that their words were worse than the poison of serpents.
Again when the Arians lied about him, that he believed as they, he was grieved and angry with them. Then, urged by the bishops and all the other brethren, he came down from the hill, and entering Alexandria, denounced the Arians, saying this was the last heresy and the forerunner of Antichrist. And he taught the people that the Son of God is not a creature, neither is He begotten out of nothingness, but that He is the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father’s being. “Therefore, it is impious to say there was a time when He was not; for the Word was always co-existing with the Father. Wherefore, do ye have no fellowship at all with these most impious Arians, for there is no fellowship of light with darkness. (Cf. 2 Cor. 6:14). For you are devout Christians, but these who say that the Son and Wisdom of God the Father is a creature differ nothing from Gentiles, worshipping the creature before God the Creator. Be ye sure that the whole creation is aroused against these men, because they count among creatures the Creator and Lord of all, in whom all things were made.”
The people all rejoiced to hear so great a man anathematize the heresy which attacks Christ. And all the citizens ran together to see Antony. Greeks, too, and even their so-called priests came to the church, saying, “We ask to see the man of God for so all called him. For there also the Lord through him cleansed many from demons and healed the mad. Many Greeks asked only to touch the old man, believing they should be helped. Naturally, in those few days as many became Christians as else one would have seen in a year. Some thought that he was annoyed by the crowds, and therefore were keeping the people from him, but he, untroubled, answered, “These are no more numerous than the demons with whom we wrestle in the hills.”
When he was leaving1 and we were setting him on his way, a woman from behind shouted, “Wait, man of God, my daughter is grievously troubled with a devil; wait, I beseech, lest I hurt myself running.” The old man hearing and being asked by us, waited willingly. When the woman drew near, the child was hurled to the ground. Antony prayed and spoke the name of Christ, and the child rose up healed, the unclean spirit being gone out of her. The mother blessed God, and all gave thanks. And he too rejoiced, departing to the hill as to his own home.
1. Socrates of Constantinople, Hist. IV, c. 25, relates an incident of this journey: It is said that earlier Antony had met this Didymus in the time of Valens, when he went down to Alexandria from the desert because of the Arians, and that finding the intelligence of the man he said to him, “Let not the loss of your bodily eyes trouble you, Didymus; for the eyes that are failing you are only such as flies and gnats also can see with. But rejoice that you have the eyes wherewith angels see, by which God is seen, and His light is received.”