In sanctum Antonium

Of the most blessed Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, an encomium on our holy father Antony. The memory of the righteous gladdens the world, the memory of the righteous illumines the world, the memory of the righteous makes humanity leap for joy, the memory of the righteous gladdens every hearer. Now Antony is remembered and we are all illumined by his memory: Antony, the citizen of the heavens, the teacher of every virtue, he who imitated the incorporeal while in the flesh, the lamp of the churches, the trainer of priests, the flower of virginity, the radiance of purity, the crown of those in mountains and caves, the model of endurance, the worker of self-control, the invincible athlete, the pillar of the prophets, the mirror of the apostles, he who is powerful with God and with men, he who possessed nothing on earth but looked entirely toward heaven, stretching his eyes upward and hastening his course toward that prize. Faithful as Abraham, obedient as Isaac, enduring as Jacob, supplying Egypt with grain as Joseph, guiding manifold wonders with teaching as Moses, he sang as David and drove out demons, he offered himself as a greater temple to God, commanded lions as Daniel, populated the desert with a church as the Baptist, reclined on the breast of Jesus through evangelical meditation as the Theologian, and died daily as Paul. But we draw from it and the vat overflows, the jars are full, the vessels beneath the press overflow; the more we run, the greater the stadium becomes; the more the voyage is accomplished, the more the immeasurable sea is revealed.

Come then, let us also say the words of Paul: "Time will fail me as I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets." For these the father of the assembled theaters took up into himself; for many words are needed, and I am a guide to the deeds, since speech grows weary in expounding the work. One thing is the character of a shadow, another the energy of truth. The image is one thing, and that of which it is the image is another, the thing shown; words depict the work, but the tongue does not speak as the hand benefits. One thing is the voice of words, another the fragrance of achievements; the former weighs upon the air, the latter reaches heaven and satisfies those above, the latter stands before those above. "Time will fail me," he says, "as I recount." If time failed Paul when he spoke of the achievements of the saints—Paul, in whom Christ spoke, in whom the fullness of the church was attained, in whom an inexhaustible treasury of knowledge was hidden, who was a mine of learning, who from above investigated the law and the prophets, who had a tongue trumpeting throughout the whole world as in a single theater—what shall we do, who are poor and needy? What shall we do, whose speech is untaught, whose tongue is weak, whose mind is slow and heart uneducated, who have neither learned external knowledge nor even minimally trained ourselves within? There is no manner of life that draws forth boldness, nor a life that speaks in place of words. From where shall we weave the garment of praises for Antony? Let David's lyre now crown him; for concerning him, in the heading of a book and of his holy works, it is written:

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; in his commandments he will be very strong; his seed will be powerful on the earth." For his seed are the communities of saints throughout all Egypt, or rather throughout the whole earth. They consider him father and farmer; they regulate their own lives by his patterns, and think him present even when absent through the keeping of his laws. One saying preserved from those trained in succession is sufficient to establish a polity from philosophy. Let the prophet Isaiah also speak about him: "Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and relatives in Jerusalem." Let these words of Jeremiah's prophecy also be spoken about Antony: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you." For he practiced holiness as a companion from birth. He possessed holy humility as an inheritance from the womb, and he established as the beginning of philosophy the chastity that is through Christ. Come, let us also crown him from the story of Job with the crown of the righteous man's head: "For there was a man in the land" of Egypt, named Antony, "a man blameless, true, god-fearing, just, abstaining from every evil deed," and "that man was noble, from the rising of the sun." Of which sun?—Of the sun of righteousness; for its risings were the apostles, whose kinship Antony possessed; let the garment of the nobility of the spirit be called. And Solomon too can utter some proverb about this righteous man:

A great man and a precious thing is a merciful man, but a faithful man is a work to find." We have found, then, we have found the one sought by the wise man, but he said it is a work to find a faithful man, yet Paul does not speak thus. But what does he say? – "Those who through faith overcame kingdoms," hinting at Antony and his emulators; for this man, disdaining the kingdoms of the world, glory, honor, and wealth, wrestled them down, "attained the promises" of the future, "stopped the mouths of lions" of pleasures, "escaped the mouths of the sword" of external wisdom, "was strengthened from weakness" of incontinence, "became strong in war" against the devil, "turned aside the camps of enemies" of demons. "Women received their dead from the resurrection," as many mothers brought sinful children to the righteous man. 8 But indeed also "he was beaten on the tympanum," "he died by the slaughter of the sword," "he experienced bonds and prison" "and stripes," "he was stoned, he was sawn asunder"; for while many suffered these things for piety, he himself suffered with all as a father of all; "he went about in sheepskins, in goatskins," emulating Elijah in gentleness; "being in want" in the flesh and "being oppressed," for he knew that afflictions are the way to the kingdom of the heavens; "being ill-treated," since Antony preferred "to be ill-treated together with the people of God" "rather than to have a temporary enjoyment of sin." "The world was not worthy of him"; therefore, while still living, he transferred himself to heaven. Then let us go through the great body of the prophets. Let Christ the head seal the encomia in our hands, still now saying:

The kingdom of heaven is a thing of violence, and violent men seize it." For Antony melted the body, he curbed the soul, he chastised the pleasures, he abstained from luxury, he spared not satiety, he used sleep only so far as to benefit nature, he considered even the name of fornication abominable, he enjoyed little of the earth. He was wholly in heaven, wholly of the life above, deeming the things here a loss. He lived by the virtues alone, being dead to the passions. He had the enemy as a plaything; the devil fell at his feet. "He mounted upon an asp and a basilisk" with confidence, "he trampled the lion" of the mind "and the serpent." He considered temptations a gain, tribulations a trade. He thought joy lay in mourning for sins, wealth in poverty. He had everything because he had nothing. He was lord of all, for he was slave to none. He despised all, for he needed nothing. May we also come to emulate him, all of us who have gathered today in his festival of holy memory, all of us who admire his venerable life, and all of us who by faith celebrate his blessed repose, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, honor, power, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.