De Vita Beati Antoni Monachi

4. ON THE LIFE OF THE BLESSED ANTONY THE MONK. PREFACE. Just as warriors rise up at the sound of trumpets, just as the speed of horses is spurred to a better pace by the iron goad, so too, when the virtue of our elders summons, it strengthens new talents. He who rereads the gray exercises and the deeds of the ancients is inflamed for the fruit of discipline by the proffered rewards of praise. The image of preceding glory, that it may come to posterity, is held by a chain of languages: it is not permitted for anything to perish through the ages, if reading, friendly to serene deeds, has taken it up. Thus, the longevity of eloquence overcomes the narrowness of mortal nature without the danger of conflict, through which the conversation of the best, even as they themselves fall, knows no setting. Indeed, the body is restored to its origin, and the spirit, destined by the higher powers, returns to its own author: yet those whose probity has been committed to books have a death that is full of life. Perhaps a stricter interpreter will say: a mind that has fulfilled its duty to the world abjures the sweetness of praise, and one freed from the bonds of the flesh does not desire to be known for what it did amid the uncertainties of the world; but that human prison has released its craftsmen without the loss of freedom, for while walking amid the polluted, the soul intent on our God doubled its luster and, through the lines of heavenly commandments, did not perceive the seductive error of this light. For us, however, let these things come to life again, let them be preserved for our benefit, for whom, if zeal for following better things is lacking, it must come from the example of those who hold forth the torch of their own way of life.

you, however, venerable Abba Leontius, who imposed this work upon me, assist me as I waver with your prayer and enrich the dryness of my style with the rain of holy supplications: for you will make, as I trust, by your merits, what you yourself ordered me to undertake, outstanding. It is natural for your blessedness to amplify my lean eloquence with the fertile dishes of innocence: believe me, either the fault or the genius of the twisted diction will look back upon you, whose substance, unless you have fortified it with religious authority, the lame faith of your judgment will seem to have chosen one less suitable, to whom you entrusted the province of venerable labor. Therefore, as I am about to narrate the insignia of the blessed Antony, first the majesty of the Holy Spirit must be invoked by me, so that He who made him rich in deeds may moderate me in explaining these through the reins of my tongue and hasten to wash away the filth of my lips with the fire of prophetic coal, lest I, through the clouds of my conscience, either impoverish the light of his life with the most ample praises or disfigure it with my parched lack of eloquence. Our God, the undivided Trinity, is blessed, who commanded His servant Antony, elevated with such a gift of virtues, to enter the gate of this light around the banks of the Danube River in the city of Valeria, with Secundinus as his father.

who, although he drew the radiance of his conscience from the splendor of his birth, nevertheless overshadowed the brilliance of his distinguished lineage with the rays of his character, surpassing the beauty of his bloodline by the clarity of his intellect, while he transcended the shining lamp of his stock by the serenity of his deeds, and became the victor over his own lineage, by which he surpassed all others at birth. While he still hung from his mother’s breasts, the grace of God, which had foreknown him, did not abandon him, nor did the heavenly dispensation allow him to lack favor, since it had approved him as full of merits to be rewarded. Lest he break the holy institutes of his purpose through the blandishments of his parents, he was stripped of his father’s guardianship at about eight years of age: yet soon his age, ignorant of pretense, flew to the most illustrious man Severinus, who, while caressing him with kisses, read the future goods in the boy as if they were past. For he was a man to whom nothing was hidden by his merits. He everywhere proclaimed with pious voice that this boy would be a future partner for himself, I believe, so that the announced hope might strengthen the recruit’s early training.

But after the blessed man was removed from human affairs, he dedicated the beginnings of his life to glorious works, joined in the service of Constans, the bishop then at the height of his renown, who ordered him to begin his heavenly service among the ecclesiastical notaries; for the venerable priest was the uncle of our Antony. Yet he never softened the rigor of his teaching by the bond of kinship, nor did he make the disciple secure in his familiarity so as not to fear, for he granted the grace of a teacher only through discipline. Such was the measure of diligence he showed toward his follower as the judgments conferred; he recognized his own merit in the face of his instructor. But already the consummation of sins threatened the destruction of Pannonia; already, with the root of the region’s substance cut away, its condition had declined into ruin. For through the incursions of various peoples, a daily harvest of swords had cut down the harvest of nobility and desolated the fertile lands of human offspring as wrath ravaged. Already the Franks, Heruli, and Saxons, in the manner of beasts, carried out manifold forms of cruelty—these diverse nations, enslaved to superstitious cults, believed that their gods were appeased by human slaughter and that they never had the gods propitious unless they had placated them with the blood of equals; they trusted that the anger of the celestials ceased through the shedding of innocent blood, they who, to return to favor with their own gods, were accustomed to offer the deaths of relatives.

Yet, those whom the title of religious office declared, they offered up as if they were more serene victims, thinking that by the slaughter of the pious the anger of the divinity would cease and that the place of offense would become the material of grace. Amid these storms of the times, Bishop Constantius, lest he have any support in the world, was freed from human law by the land assigned to guests. After his passing, the servants lead our Antony to the regions of Italy, to which he had been divinely assigned, with Christ as guide. He first enters the threshold of the valley of Tellina, which has received this name: a place enriched by the arms of mountains on either side, fabricated by nature, and its fertile soil, enriched by the common people of rivers from fertile peaks, responds to the immoderate desires of its greedy cultivators, yet not so burdened with grain, nor endowed with pastures, nor planted with orchards, nor gladdened by rivers, that the grace of the arriving person did not bestow more upon it than its own varied and distinct beauty. There he was joined to the priest Marius, who held dominion over unclean spirits, for such is the condition of things: that the character of a new man is revealed by the companionship he finds, and he who is unknown through origin becomes clear through the affection of similar men; the hidden mind is detected through companions, and he who is not permitted to assess clearly the conscience of the newcomer is allowed to discern outsiders through his own.

For when the blessed Marius examined him with those eyes by which minds are seen and scrutinized the hidden beauty of the inner man with concealed glances, he wished to join him to the college of clerics and to dedicate a person outstanding in merits among the ecclesiastical assemblies. But he who always believed that power was subject to obedience and preferred to serve patiently rather than to rule as a king fled from honor as if from a cup of poison. Yet, lest he long absorb the contagion of association mixed with the allurements of human intercourse, he chose a retreat not far from the tomb of the blessed martyr Felix, where Lake Como lays down the threats of Ionian marble, when, lest it wander too far, the reins of the earth resist with opposing banks. There a mountain shines, its peak inserted into the clouds, which surpasses sight by its sublimity. But as it is proud in magnitude, so it is difficult in ascent. For before our monk, it lay open to no footsteps, nor did it admit the footprint of the human race through the steep rocks, with fear opposing. In the sheer cliffs, it long provided safe lairs for wild beasts, with no one frightening them away, more gentle to beasts by the very fact that it threatened the farmer's excursion more terribly. In this place the servant of God chose his seat, in which the sole reason for pleasing was that it in no way flattered the eyes. Taking with him nothing more than a little pulse and a hoe with which to stir the earth, from the benefits of the world, he dedicated a path unknown through the conquered roughness.

Those untamed yokes, which had been the law of nature, lost their power when Antony entered: the paths, once sealed, lay open after his entry for those who desired them. Yet there he found two old men, whom long habitation among the lairs of wild beasts had so mingled with them that no report of them reached the world. I seem to have fully expressed their life and sanctity when I have disclosed that they sought, for fear of God, a dwelling without the cloud of worldly fame. Shortly after, one of them was taken up, and, the burden of the earthly prison laid aside, his blessed soul regained its ethereal health: for at the time of his release, a fiery column was thrust before the eyes of the blessed Antony, reaching up to heaven—I believe, so that the faith of that venerable man and that fire which consumes vices might be shown by a typical conflagration. Then, while the servant of God there spread the sails of his powers to the full in celestial disciplines and received through the folds of his soul and body the winds that drive out the chaff, I would rightly recount his vigils, fasts, and assiduity in reading, did I not have more worthy things to remember. He never took food except when his little body was failing; he never relaxed the care of his duty from his concern except when his task was done. But why should I unfold what instruments of perfection the perfect man possessed, or by what steps he ascended to the heights, when it is clearly established that he attained the sublime?

He so pursued the varied outlines of the disciplines through diverse labors that he never assumed arrogance from his labor, and although everything he did was worthy of praise, he believed that being praised was a loss of virtue. Thus, the light of opinion shone so fully from his deeds that nothing was offered for display: the censure of his mind prevailed in his body, and the anger which his soul had taken up against faults painted his unadorned face. You would see him, a soldier of Christ, waging war with fierce eyes against worldly vices and tirelessly against the blandishments of the age. When did that countenance ever relax its composure into laughter, or was it ever broken from the rigor of its proper order by the weakness of joy? Meanwhile, while the monk was fulfilling his sealed duty in all things, a certain man, whom love for his betrothed had driven into crime and provoked to the shedding of human blood by affection and indignation, thinking he could flee his conscience by changing lands and that innocence could be found in other parts of the province, which he had lost under the guidance of fury, brought a veiled murderer, concealed by simplicity, to the secret places of the hermitage, believing that nothing of his deeds would be apparent to those established in the service of God except their outward appearance. He feigned a humble gaze with artifice and, through the deceits of a cunning plan, with a fabricated submission composed, he covered the filth of his crimes with more cautious obstacles.

It is difficult to detect, apart from God, whatever is wrapped in the arguments of compliance: wretchedness cunningly conceals a crime; crimes rarely burst into the light which the author of obedience has known how to bury with a veneer. Yet immediately that customary informant was present and unlocked the secrets of the hidden conscience with the key of the divine voice, assailing Antony in those speeches when he taught him to have recognized more than a man can, exposing that man who was hiding a robber under a coarse garment, saying: "Beware lest you wish to mingle a defendant of such a crime with the holy company, lest a negligent assessor join a wolf with sheep, a viper with lambs. This man, by the shattered fragments of his throat, drove out the soul granted to God's hands and, with the murderous fury of a brother constrained, dissolved life from its abode while he inflicted bonds upon the throat: destruction follows this debt, nor will he who did not spare human blood be alien from the yoke of punishment: mercy goes about with preserved severity toward criminals. Therefore, putting an end to sleep, drive away the enemy of heavenly commandments, lest the bright conversation of those dwelling with you be violated by the dark contagion of the newcomer." Immediately obeying the divine commands, he calls the man, convicts the liar, and with a holiday mouth pursues all the deeds of the guilty one.

The man, caught, was terrified when he saw his crimes being reviewed by a man, crimes he had committed without a witness from the human race: he asked for travel provisions, tremblingly prepared for flight; but immediately, punishment, the attendant of the guilty, seized him, and the expiated crime announced the perpetrator's death. Thus the word of a righteous man could not lack power. Meanwhile, the holy man became known in neighboring regions through the tongues of a slanderous rumor, and lest celebrity give rise to boastfulness, remedies were foreseen before the disease could grow. For what aged or weak person did not cross the rugged terrain of that journey with diligent guidance, if desires that grant health did not even hold diseases in bodies? Terrified by this throng, blessed Anthony believed he must fly to more remote parts of the hermitage, lest the devotion of individuals become the mother of unlovable arrogance and from manifold grace the ruin of a stricter purpose arise. Soon, however, a retreat was chosen, which a hanging cliff commended, where for many years he lived alone and truly a monk, without a companion of the human race. The mountain solitude provided wild beasts as companions: the roar of a bear and the threatening murmur of other beasts were offered in place of the communion of pleasant conversation.

Finally, at that time, a rather insolent bear, about to give more to his glory, destroyed the man's cabbages—more luxuriant with their youthful leaves and, with a certain cheerfulness toward their master, bursting forth—by entering with immense devastation, so that nowhere was any hope of the simple crop left. The man, having beaten it more severely with his staff and ordering it to depart, soon compelled it to go as a witness of his virtue and a messenger of his passion to the other beasts, so that the faithful promise of the Lord might be fulfilled, which promised to his followers the obedience of all venom and all wild beasts. Yet again, as he was walking along his appointed path, a roaring beast presented itself, which he, disturbed by a mere command, made open the way and abandon the seized barriers of the road. But behold, again, with swift wings, rumor spread through the order of its betrayal where the servant of God was living, with different people opining variously about him according to the variety of opinions. Then it became clearly evident through multiple encounters that nothing obstructs those who desire to smooth the rough, to solidify the shattered, and not to fear the hanging. But to the more powerful snares, lest the enemy steal in through arrogance, he applied a stronger plan with his hand, so that the aged man would not lose what he had preserved among his trials by virtue. For the contest of the devil is more intense around the strong, and he attacks with greater forces those who, having experienced his conflict, have subdued him with the sweat of their strength.

Nevertheless, considering all this within himself, he fortified his spirit with a brief address: "What are we doing, O mind still weighed down by the burden of worldly cares, which the bodily prison has not yet vomited forth to its author? You have no sure confidence in perfection while you are still confined by carnal frailty: what seems most safe is full of perils; you recognize the allurements of your enemy when you are praised by the voice of all. See how many snares you labor under: it is not permitted that what we do be hidden; hostile persecution reveals our hiding place. Let us seek the army of the saints and that cohort of the island of Lérins with a burning eagerness: he whom the adversary has so far assailed alone will fear when placed among a multitude hostile to him. That battle-trained line always keeps watch and, pierced by various blows, drives off the assailant: as many wars as the devil has waged against them, they count that many triumphs; they do not fear whenever Satan is present, but they sharpen those who fight when the trumpet's blare announces his arrival; daily combat has always rendered them skilled and strong, just as prolonged peace makes men slack.

After saying these things, he dismissed the brothers from the cell, whom the aforementioned love had gathered there, and unexpectedly appeared at Lérins. The face of a man of outstanding merits, adorned with the pallor of fasting, announced him. For while the splendid thinness of the man revealed the radiance of his seclusion, his customary herald of his deeds was not lacking, describing the immaculate appearance of his conduct with an abundance of words and a wealth of narrative. Mixed among the elderly and the eminent, he understood that the lamp of his own deeds blazed with no lesser fire: he measured the light of his own fuel when he saw that of another. As if, among the ornaments of the sky and the stars shining with full brilliance, the brightness of a newly arriving star is joined, they compete without envy to double their rays and, through the increase of light, to surpass the beauty of novelty—one star commends its face with a longer train, another with a purer one; a greater flame enriches one, a purer one ennobles another through the nocturnal spaces: so our Antony was accompanied by the discipline coming from Christ through all changes of place. Yet he took care, lest on that island, the nurse of saints, while he excelled in merits, he might seem to be preferred in honors, knowing that a plant rooted in humility rises to a hundredfold fruit. Gentle with the young, grave with the mature, learned with the learned, submissive in the presence of the simple, he gathered that whole legion of the Lord's flock, distinct in action, varied in peoples, as if one soul in his affection.

There for two years, stronger than himself, laying down the burden of this world, a victor over the snares which the cunning of the ancient serpent prepares, he exchanged our day and the light of the present age for the attainment of perpetual light. I pass over in silence how the glory of his death marked his life, lest, by recounting everything, I seem not so much to have told the truth as to have lingered in praise of the man I have mentioned. Just as if someone should find a planted grove thick with foliage, and, by snatching from it a crown with the pressure of iron, he does not remove the genius of the wood while presuming to take a small thing: I have kept for narration the better deeds of our Antony, which I have not touched with my pen. Perhaps I may be surpassed in the flood of eloquence, but no one will surpass me in affection for him. Let him who follows boast of his harvest of skill; no one will snatch from me the grace of the blessed man, I who first approached to set forth his good qualities.