Chapter Eighteen
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Arian Persecution
THE renown of Antony reached even to kings. For on hearing of these things, Constantine Augustus and his sons, Constantius Augustus and Constans Augustus, wrote to him as to a father and begged to receive answers from him. He, however, did not value these writings nor rejoice over the letters, but was just what he had been before the kings wrote to him. When the letters were brought to him, he called the monks and said, “Do not admire if a king writes to us, for he is a man, but admire rather that God has written the law for men, and has spoken to us by His own Son.” He wished not to receive the letters, saying that he knew not what to answer to such. But being urged by the monks because the kings were Christians and they might be scandalized as though he made them outcasts, he allowed them to be read. And he wrote back, welcoming them because they worshiped Christ, and advised them, for their salvation, not to think much of things present, but rather to remember the coming judgment, and to know that the only true and eternal king is Christ. He begged them also to be lovers of men, to care for justice and to care for the poor. And they were glad to get his letter. So was he beloved by all, and so did all wish to hold him as a father.
With this character, and thus answering those who sought him, he returned again to the mount in the interior and continued his usual life. Often when sitting or walking with visitors he would become dumb, as it is written in Daniel. (Cf. Dan. 10:15). After a time he would resume his former discourse with the brethren, but they perceived that he was seeing some vision. For often in the mountain he saw things happening in Egypt, and described them to the Bishop Serapion, who was within and saw Antony occupied with the vision. Once as he sat working, he became as in ecstasy, and in the vision he groaned constantly. Then after a time he turned to his companions groaning; and trembling, he prayed, bending his knees and abiding a long time; and when he arose, the old man was weeping. Then the others trembled and were much afraid and begged him to tell, and long they urged him till he was compelled to speak. Then with a great groan he said, “Ah, my children, better is it to die than that there happen what I have seen in this vision.” And when they asked again, he said with tears, “Wrath shall overtake the Church, and she shall be delivered up to men who are like to senseless beasts. For I saw the table of the Lord, and around it mules standing on all sides in a ring and kicking what was within, as might be the kicking of beasts in a wild frolic. You heard surely,” he said, “how I was groaning, for I heard a voice saying, ‘My altar shall be made an abomination.’ ”
So the old man said, and two years after came this present onset of the Arians and the plundering of the churches, wherein, seizing by force the vessels, they had them carried away by pagans; when, too, they forced the pagans from the workshops to their meetings and in their presence did what they would on the sacred table. Then we all understood that the kicking of the mules had foreshown to Antony what the Arians are now doing, brutishly as beasts. When he saw this vision, he comforted his companions, saying, “Do not lose heart, children, for as the Lord has been angry, so later will He bring healing. And the Church shall quickly regain her own beauty and shine as before. And you shall see the persecuted restored and impiety retiring to its own hiding places and the True Faith in all places speaking openly with all freedom. Only, defile not yourselves with the Arians. For this teaching is not of the Apostles, but of the demons and their father the devil; and indeed from no source, from no sense, from a mind not right it comes, like the senselessness of mules.”