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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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75 Pages
Page 52
51. So he was alone in the inner mountain, spending his time in prayer and discipline. And the brethren who served him asked that they might come every month and bring him olives, pulse and oil, for by now he was an old man. There then he passed his life, and endured such great wrestlings, 'Not against flesh and blood [1094] ,' as it is written, but against opposing demons, as we learned from those who visited him. For there they heard tumults, many voices, and, as it were, the clash of arms. At night they saw the mountain become full of wild beasts, and him also fighting as though against visible beings, and praying against them. And those who came to him he encouraged, while kneeling he contended and prayed to the Lord. Surely it was a marvellous thing that a man, alone in such a desert, feared neither the demons who rose up against him, nor the fierceness of the four-footed beasts and creeping things, for all they were so many. But in truth, as it is written, 'He trusted in the Lord as Mount Sion [1095] ,' with a mind unshaken and undisturbed; so that the demons rather fled from him, and the wild beasts, as it is written [1096] , 'kept peace with him.'
52. The devil, therefore, as David says in the Psalms [1097] , observed Anthony and gnashed his teeth against him. But Anthony was consoled by the Saviour and continued unhurt by his wiles and varied devices. As he was watching in the night the devil sent wild beasts against him. And almost all the hyenas in that desert came forth from their dens and surrounded him; and he was in the midst, while each one threatened to bite. Seeing that it was a trick of the enemy he said to them all: 'If ye have received power against me I am ready to be devoured by you; but if ye were sent against me by demons, stay not, but depart, for I am a servant of Christ.' When Anthony said this they fled, driven by that word as with a whip.
[1094] Eph. vi. 12.
[1095] Ps. cxxv. 1.
[1096] Job v. 23.
[1097] Ps. xxxv. 16.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/anthony-life.asp?pg=52
