CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FOUR
Alone in the Desert
(At Pispir, now Der el Memun)
THE next day, going out with still greater zeal for the service of God, Antony met the old man before mentioned and asked him to live in the desert with him. He refused because of his age and because this was not as yet usual, but Antony at once set out for the mountain. Yet once more the enemy, seeing his zeal and wishing to check it, threw in his way the form of a large disc of silver. Antony, understanding the deceit of the Evil One, stood and looked at the disc and confuted the demon in it, saying, “Whence a disc in the desert? This is not a trodden road, and there is no track of any faring this way. And it could not have fallen unnoticed, being of huge size. And even if it had been lost, the loser would certainly have found it had he turned back to look, because the place is desert. This is a trick of the devil. You will not hinder my purpose by this, Satan; let this thing perish with thee.” And as Antony said this, it disappeared like smoke before the face of the fire.
Now as he went on, he again saw, not this time a phantom, but real gold lying in the way. Whether it was the enemy that pointed it out or whether it was a higher power, training the disciple and proving to the devil that he cared nothing even for real riches, he himself did not say, and we do not know—only that it was gold that he saw. Antony marveled at the quantity, but avoided it like fire and passed on without looking back, running swiftly on till he lost sight of the place and knew not where it was.
So with firmer and firmer resolution, he went to the mountain, and finding beyond the river a fort, long deserted and now full of reptiles, he betook himself there and dwelt in it. The reptiles fled at once as though chased by someone; and he, closing up the entrance and laying in bread for six months (the Thebans do this, and often it keeps unspoiled for a whole year), and having water in the fort, went down into the inner rooms and abode there alone, not going out himself and not seeing any who came to visit him. For a long time he continued this life of asceticism, only receiving his loaves twice in the year from the house above.
His acquaintances who came to see him often spent days and nights outside, since he would not let them enter. They seemed to hear a tumultuous crowd inside, making noises, uttering piteous cries, shrieking, “Stand off from our domain! What have you to do with the desert? You cannot stand against our contrivings.” At first those outside thought there were men fighting with Antony, who had got in to him by a ladder, but when they bent down through a hole and saw no one, then they thought it was demons and feared for themselves and called to Antony. He listened to them, though he gave no thought to the demons; and going near to the door, he urged the people to go home and fear not, saying that the demons made these displays against the timid. “Do you therefore sign yourselves and go away bravely and leave them to make fools of themselves.” So they went away, protecting themselves with the Sign of the Cross, and he remained and was nowise hurt by them. Nor did he weary of the struggle. For the aid of the visions that came to him from on high and the weakness of his enemies brought him much ease from his labors and prepared him for greater earnestness. His friends used to come constantly, expecting to find him dead; but they heard him singing: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face. As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. (Ps. 67:2–3). And again: All the nations surrounded me, and by the name of the Lord I drove them off. (Cf. Ps. 117:10).
He spent nearly twenty years in this solitary religious life, neither going out nor being seen regularly by any. After that, many longed and sought to copy his holy life, and some of his friends came and forcibly broke down the door and removed it; and Antony came forth as from a holy of holies, filled with heavenly secrets and possessed by the Spirit of God. This was the first time he showed himself from the fort to those who came to him. When they saw him they marveled to see that his body kept its former state, being neither grown heavy for want of exercise, nor shrunken with fastings and strivings against demons. For he was such as they had known him before his retirement. The light of his soul, too, was absolutely pure. It was not shrunk with grieving nor dissipated by pleasure; it had no touch of levity nor of gloom. He was not bashful at seeing the crowd nor elated at being welcomed by such numbers, but was unvaryingly tranquil, a man ruled by reason, whose whole character had grown firm-set in the way that nature had meant it to grow.
Through him the Lord healed many of those present who were suffering from bodily ills and freed others from evil spirits. And the Lord gave Antony grace in speech, so that he comforted many in sorrow; others who were at strife he made friends; charging all not to prefer anything in the world to the love of Christ. And when he spoke and exhorted them to be mindful of the good things to come and of the love of God for us, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all (cf. Rom. 8:32), he induced many to take up the solitary life. And so from that time there were monasteries in the mountains, and the desert was peopled with monks who went forth from their own and became citizens of the kingdom of Heaven.