Sayings of our holy father Anthony the Great and accounts about him

Whoever wants to enter successfully upon the monastic labour must settle his accounts with this world once and for all and leave all its goods, must withdraw from it in deed and firmly cut off every desire bound up with the vain strivings and things of this world. This truth St Anthony impressed strikingly upon one brother who, when renouncing this world and giving everything away to the poor, still kept a little property for himself against a rainy day; and this man came to Father Anthony for counsel, and Anthony at once knew what was the matter with him and said: “If you really want to become a monk, go to the village, buy meat, cut it into small pieces, strip off your clothes, hang the pieces on your shoulders and arms and come back here like that!” The man who wanted to be a monk did as the teacher commanded, and on the way a multitude of birds and insects fell upon him and his whole body was covered with wounds. When he came back to the holy father, Anthony asked whether he had done what he had been commanded. And he told what had happened to him and showed his wounds. Then Father Anthony said to him: “Such is the lot of one who withdraws from this world but keeps even a little of his property for himself: the demons fill his soul with wounds, and he falls, tormented.”

The following account, which Father Cassian has preserved for us, concerns the same subject: once a man came to St Anthony who thought that for the monastic labour there is no need at all to renounce this world, and said to the holy father: greater worth belongs to the labourer who labours in a city, or in a village, beside people, if there too he fulfils as he ought everything necessary for the attaining of spiritual perfection. Father Anthony asked: and where do you yourself live, and how do you labour? And he answered: I live in my parents’ house, where everything necessary is provided for me, and I, freed from every care, read Holy Scripture unceasingly and pray, so that my soul dwells on nothing else. Father Anthony asked again: tell me, child, do you grieve together with your parents and do you share both their trouble and their joy? And when he received confirmation, he said to him: then know that in the eternal life to come too you will share their sorrow or their joy. The way of life you have chosen is harmful to you not only because it is full of daily changeableness, instability and chance, which fills your mind with vain thoughts about everything earthly, but also because you are deprived of the ability to bear fruit, since you do not gain your food by your own labour, like the Apostle Paul, who, besides preaching the word of God to the peoples, by his own labour gained his daily bread both for himself and for those who were with him. Therefore he says to the Ephesians: “Ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me” (Acts of the Apostles 20:34). This the holy apostle did for our instruction, to give an example to the generations to come, as he himself says to the Thessalonians: “…ye know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us” (Second to the Thessalonians 3:7–9). Therefore we too, even if we had the chance to make use of the help of parents and kinsfolk, still prefer to gain our bread by our own labour, and by no means by the labour of others. We would gladly have chosen the latter if we thought it more profitable for our souls, but it is not so. So know, child, that if you, wholly healthy and able to work, live on someone else’s piece of bread, by this you are eating the bread of the poor and the weak!

A person who leaves the life of this world sets foot in a wholly new life, which, though not altogether unknown to him, still brings him many things from which the question arises in him unbidden: what ought I to do? What must I do in order to live as I should for the salvation of my soul? St Anthony was asked such a question more than once. Abba Pambo once put such a question to him, and Father Anthony answered: repent sincerely of your sins! Put a bridle on your tongue, your heart and your belly!

To the same question Father Anthony answered Abba Poemen thus: the greatest of all the works which a person can perform is the confession of one’s own sins before God and before spiritual teachers, and the blaming of oneself for them. A person who does all this will always, to the last minute of his life, be ready to withstand any temptation.

A brother asked St Anthony: what must I do to please God? The answer was this: wherever you go, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, you should have found witness and confirmation for that deed in Holy Scripture; in whatever place your dwelling may be, do not readily move to live somewhere else. Keep these three vows, and the salvation of your soul will be granted you.

Another disciple the great teacher instructed thus: be filled with hatred and loathing toward your own belly, toward earthly needs, toward evil passions and desires, toward glory and honour from people; that is, live in this world as though you were not in it — and if you can do this, you will gain true peace of soul.

This is what Father Anthony said to the brethren who came to him for counsel (according to the account preserved by St Athanasius of Alexandria): always have the fear of God before the eyes of your mind, always remember Him who “…killeth and maketh alive, bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up” (Kings 2:6). Hate this world and everything in it, so as to live for God alone. Always remember what you promised the Lord at the beginning of your labour, for He will require an answer of you for everything on the dread day of judgement. Hunger, thirst, endure nakedness, keep vigil. Lament in repentance, weep for your sins, sigh in your hearts over your own weakness; test yourselves — whether you are worthy to receive divine grace; loathe the body, disregard its demands, so as to save your souls.

A like instruction, more extensive, about what a monk should do in order to please God, is given by St Cassian. This counsel of St Anthony has been known from of old: the monk who strives after the highest perfection in the spiritual life should not limit himself to imitating one father only, even one who has made great progress in the spiritual labour. For in no one person can all the virtues be fully represented. Experience shows that one of such advanced labourers is, say, endowed with knowledge, another is distinguished by sound judgement, a third is firm in unshakeable patience, a fourth in true humility and obedience, a fifth is known for self-restraint, a sixth for simplicity of heart, a seventh surpasses his brethren in magnanimity, an eighth in the gift of mercy, while a ninth has attained perfection in the labour of silence or in love of work, and so on. Therefore, if a monk wants to be like the tireless bee and to fill the combs of his soul with many virtues and good works, he should take some virtue from the one who has gained it more than others, and should not pay attention to what virtue that father lacks; he should look diligently to see who has advanced most in which virtue, and imitate him precisely in that virtue. If we remember all the above, a wide field for spiritual labour will open before us. A question arises: what is that power which moves a labourer to take up this labour and enables him to accomplish it successfully, to save his own soul and to help others in this? This power is zeal for salvation, which, if it is in a labourer, prepares him for everything for the glory of the name of God. If this power is in a monk, then he is active in spiritual labour; and if it is not, then everything freezes in one place.

That is why to one brother who lacked such zeal for the salvation of his soul and who came to Father Anthony with the request, pray for me, the saint said: neither I nor God will be able to help you in anything if you yourself do not care for your own soul and do not yourself pray before God.

For the same reason he counselled everyone to be constantly watchful, to observe themselves — whether our zeal for God has grown weak — and with this to count it the greatest virtue if one of the brethren at every hour of his life serves the Lord without slackening and to his last breath meets courageously the temptations of the crafty tempter, the devil.

Therefore Father Anthony always urged the brethren not to weaken in diligence but to keep patiently at all times the same spirit of divine zeal. He said: the monk who labours diligently for a time, and then slackens his effort and lives in sloth, and afterwards is again in his former diligence, and so goes on — now active with divine zeal, now slothful — such a monk, reckon it, does nothing and will never attain the perfect spiritual life, for the reason that he lacks constancy of zeal and firmness of patience.

Therefore Father Anthony held that a monk who seeks to make his labour easier has not understood his own worth and purpose, and he named as the chief cause of unsuccessful labour the lack of diligence and the cooling of divine zeal. It is for this reason that we do not make progress in spiritual labour, he said: because we truly do not know our own worth, nor do we understand what the work we have entered upon requires of us; and, not knowing this, we want to attain virtue without toil. That is why it happens that if some trial and hindrance meets us in the place of our labour, we move elsewhere, since we vainly suppose that there is a place in this world where there will be no devil and no temptations coming from him. But whoever has truly come to know what the fight with the devil is will not, with God’s help, weaken his effort, will not let himself slacken his diligence and by this lose his zeal for God. Such a labourer is a soldier always ready for battle, firm before temptations.

Excellent is the word of the holy father on this subject to those brethren who will not take up the one thing and cannot carry the other. Once certain brethren came to the holy father and said: instruct us and teach us how and by what way to save our souls. The teacher answered them: do you read and hear Holy Scripture? That is more than enough for this. But the brethren said: we want to hear instruction from you too, father! Then Father Anthony said: in the holy Gospel it is said, “…whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:39); can you do this? The brethren answered: no, we cannot do that. Then the teacher said to them: if you cannot do this, to turn the other cheek to the one who insults you, can you at least bear a blow on one cheek and not answer in kind? To this too the brethren said: we cannot. If you cannot do even this, then at the very least do this much: to a single blow answer with a single blow only. We shall not be able to do that either, was the answer. Then the astonished teacher turned to his disciple and said: prepare them a little healing broth — they are sick. And to the brethren themselves he said: if you cannot do one thing and will not do the other, how shall I help you? You must pray fervently and unceasingly that the spirit of divine zeal may be awakened in you, that is, that moral power may begin to work in your slothful souls. But zeal is sometimes blind of itself, and it may happen that it takes a direction wholly incompatible with the purpose of the life that has been begun. Therefore a labourer’s zeal must be defined and fenced in by guides. But what can be the guide and leader of divine zeal? St Anthony points to two such guides: one’s own judgement, which comes from understanding, and the counsel received from experienced brethren.

Once the fathers gathered at St Anthony’s to determine which virtue is the highest and which can most surely protect a labourer from all the wiles of the enemy of the human race. Each of these fathers expressed his own opinion; some praised fasting and vigil, since these two virtues restrain the thoughts of the heart, train the mind and make it easier for a person to draw near to God. Others commended poverty and the disregard of earthly things more, because by means of these virtues a labourer’s mind becomes more peaceful and pure and is freed from worldly, vain cares, whereby drawing near to God is made easier still. And a third group gave the preference among the virtues to the gift of mercy, since our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says to the merciful: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me” (Matt. 25:34–36). And some of these fathers named other virtues too. But Father Anthony said this: all those virtues which you have named are most saving and necessary for those people who seek God and burn with a strong longing to draw near to Him. But we have seen more than once that many have worn down their bodies by extreme fasting, by vigil, by long solitude in the desert; and these labourers also toiled diligently at work, loved poverty and loathed worldly comfort, so that they kept for themselves neither food for a single day nor anything else they needed, but gave away everything they had to the poor. And we have seen such labourers too, who advanced in all the virtues you have named, yet in the end it would happen that they — or rather many of them — turned aside to evil and fell, and thereby lost all their former virtues and became worthy of blame and condemnation. And the cause of this was only that these fathers had not gained the virtue of discernment and good sense. It is precisely this virtue that teaches a labourer all that is due and prepares him to walk the right road, so that in journeying to God he may nowhere turn aside from this road. If we always walk the royal road, we shall never be snatched away by the wicked accusers, the demons, either to the right, toward extreme austerity, or to the left, toward sloth. Discernment and good sense are the eyes of the soul, its lamp, as the eyes are the lamp of the body; so that if our eye is clear, then the whole body (of our deeds) will be full of light; but if this eye of the soul — discernment — is dark in us, then our whole body too will be wrapped in darkness, as the Lord Himself tells us in the holy Gospel (Matt. 6:22–23). By the power of discernment we examine our desires, words and deeds and put away everything that removes us from God; by discernment and good sense we destroy and overcome all the devices of the crafty adversary, since we are able rightly to tell what is good and what is bad for the salvation of our souls, what is profitable and what is harmful for the successful finishing of our labour.

The following saying of the holy father also concerns the same subject: when a smith takes a piece of iron, he has already pictured in his mind the object he intends to forge — whether it be a scythe, a sword or an axe. So we too must in the same way judge beforehand with our good sense which virtue it is better to set about, so that our intention and our labour may not prove vain. Of course it would be better if in every work and trial we were guided by our own judgement alone; but the fact is that one’s own judgement is not always a sufficient helper for a person, and it is not given to all people in equal measure. Therefore, since we must never rely wholly on ourselves and on our own judgement, a more trustworthy and safer guide for us is the counsel of experienced fathers.

On this St Anthony says the following: I know many monks who after long toils fell and through folly suffered harm, because they relied only on their own strength and their own deeds and disregarded the experience of others; they had also forgotten the commandment of Him who commands us through holy Moses: “…from generation to generation, ask thy father, and he shall relate to thee; thine elders, and they shall tell thee” (Deuteronomy 32:7).

And Father Anthony would also say: in Holy Scripture it is said, “They that have no guidance (that is, no leadership, no direction) fall like leaves; but in much counsel there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14); by these words Holy Scripture enjoins us to do nothing without asking counsel. Nor should we ever slake even our spiritual thirst without asking counsel; and if we act so, our soul will always be strong. For Jesus the son of Sirach tells us the same: without judgement and without the counsel of others do nothing (32:21). Even a little wine, drink it after asking counsel. The person who does his own works without asking counsel is like a city without walls, into which everyone enters and from which everyone goes out without asking anyone, and snatches whatever he pleases.

The asking of counsel from others Father Anthony considered so saving a work that he himself, the teacher of all, sometimes asked counsel of his own disciples. Of this they relate the following case: once, when the saint received from the emperor Constantine a written invitation to come to Constantinople, he turned to his disciple Paul the Simple with the question: ought I to go or not? The disciple said to him: if you go, you will be Anthony; and if you do not, Abba Anthony — that is, by these words he did not approve his teacher’s journey to Constantinople. Then St Anthony obeyed his disciple’s counsel and remained peacefully in his cell.

He counselled everyone to act in the same way, that is, to ask counsel of another, and taught thus: a monk, if it is possible, should ask counsel of someone in the brotherhood, better of his own spiritual teacher, about every step he takes even in his own cell, and about every drop of water he is about to drink (that is, about every work great and small, important and unimportant, that is bound up with his labour). I know monks too who fell only because they were entirely alone before temptations; they asked counsel of no one and thought to please God by their own judgement and experience alone.

Thus Father Anthony did not approve of relying on one’s own judgement and experience alone. Is this not why he met with approval Abba Joseph, who, at the brethren’s question about an obscure passage of Holy Scripture, answered: “I do not know” — since by this answer the said father, besides his humility, also expressed his distrust of his own judgement and experience? It happened thus: once teachers came to Father Anthony, and among them was Joseph. The saint, wishing to test and examine them, proposed to them a passage from Holy Scripture for interpretation and asked each one, beginning with the youngest, what this passage meant. Every father gave his own opinion and interpreted the passage as best he could. But the teacher answered each: you have not known it and have not understood it. And at the end the holy father Anthony asked Joseph too: and what will you say about this saying? I do not know, answered Joseph. Then the teacher said: Abba Joseph acted more wisely than the rest, since he said, I do not know; he is on the right road.

And yet Father Anthony did not teach reliance on the counsel of others without qualification. We ought first to be assured of the good sense and experience of the teacher to whom we intend to turn for counsel, he said; only in that case should we rely on the counsel of others and unswervingly accept the instruction of others, if we are truly convinced that it accords with the will of God and with Holy Scripture. Father Anthony said that the mark by which we judge whether counsel is good or bad is its agreement with the word of God. If someone points out to you or commands you something that accords with the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, receive and fulfil it obediently, so that in you may be confirmed the word of the holy apostle, who commands us: “…brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13), and again: “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ” (Eph. 5:21). But if someone counsels or commands you something contrary to the commandments of God, then say to the one who gives such counsel: “…whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye!” (Acts of the Apostles 4:19). We should always remember too what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commands us: “…the shepherd of the sheep… calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice” (John 10:2–5). Likewise the blessed Apostle Paul urges upon us that “…though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed!” (Gal. 1:8). Such caution in asking counsel was probably brought about also by the fact that at that time the heresy of Arius was raging; his followers, under the mask of piety and the fear of God, drew monks to themselves and gave them the poison of their false teaching to drink. But perhaps this alone was not the chief cause, since often less experienced fathers took upon themselves the burden of teaching and instructed disciples wrongly. For such a case Father Anthony would say: the fathers of old withdrew into the desert and after a long, heavy labour healed their own souls, after which they also understood how to heal others; returning from the desert, they became saving physicians for others. But we do otherwise: though we too go out into the desert and enter upon spiritual labour, we take on the care of others before we have healed our own souls; because of this our former weakness returns to us, and our sickness becomes sharper than at first and sometimes incurable. It is for this very reason that the holy Gospel tells us, “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23), and these words apply to everyone who takes upon himself the heavy yoke of teaching, said Father Anthony. In a person nothing stands still in one place: his passions and strivings now grow stronger and now weaker. So too is zeal for God: it now blazes, now dies down. In the latter case it must be kindled again, so that it may not go out altogether. But with what shall we kindle divine zeal in our soul? How ought we to do this? Above all by the remembrance of death, that is, by always having our end before our eyes. Father Anthony too repeated more than once: imprint deeply in your mind the expectation of death and live as though this present day were your last in this world, and at every hour expect death.

On the other hand, we should kindle zeal for God in the soul also by surveying with the mind all that awaits us after death. To this end, so as to imprint this thought deeply in the souls of his disciples, St Anthony would tell them of his own experience, of what the Lord Himself once revealed to him (of this St Athanasius tells us). One morning, before taking food, Father Anthony was standing at prayer, as was his custom. Suddenly he felt that he was caught up on high and as though seeing himself from afar; some power was wondrously drawing him upward, while in the space of the air there were certain dark and dreadful forms which tried to bar his way and to hinder his ascent. But Anthony has guides who defend him and beat back the attackers. And they attack again and again, and with such assurance as though they had a full right to do so; and they demand an account of his life, so as to determine: is he not our debtor and must he not submit to our power? At their demand Anthony’s guides had to yield and give an account to the adversaries. But when the latter wished to begin the examination of his life from his birth, the guides resisted and answered thus: everything in which he sinned from birth the Lord has blotted out and forgiven him from the moment when Anthony dedicated himself to God and took the monastic vow; count only what he has done since then, being already a monk who has entered upon the spiritual labour. But from that time the accusers could no longer find anything in his life that would enable them to reprove Anthony and demand an account. So they proved powerless and drew back in disgrace, after which the way for the ascent was open, and nothing could hinder it… But from that moment St Anthony felt that he was returning to himself (to his body), and soon he came back to his former, usual state. All this was so dreadful and striking that Anthony neither on that day nor for several days afterwards remembered to take food, and, alone in his cell, gave himself to sighing and prayer. His soul was shaken at how many and how cruel are the adversaries that the soul of a person has at the departure from this world and the ascent to heaven — adversaries who see and remember even the smallest thing from his earthly life, so as at the end to demand an account and to take him captive. In these thoughts the holy father remembered the words of the Apostle Paul about the prince of the air, the devil: “…according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2); and the chief of the apostles says this because the enemy of the human race, the devil, has power over those who pass through the space of the air — he can withstand the one who ascends, fight with him, demand an account for his sins and thus bar the way and hinder the soul of a person in its ascent. That is why in the same epistle (6:13) the holy apostle so insistently counsels us: “…we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. 6:12–13), and so that the enemy of the human race may be put to shame: “In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us” (Titus 2:7–8).

Such is the account told by St Athanasius of Alexandria; and though this event is not known from other sources, we should of course have no doubt of its truth: St Anthony may have told no one else of this vision. But here is a second account, which concerns a like vision from Father Anthony’s life and declares to us the same subject, and which the saint told to others as well. In the same St Athanasius the following is related: once Father Anthony was talking with the elders who had come to him about the state of the soul after death. That same night St Anthony heard a certain voice from above, which said to him: arise, go out and see! Anthony goes out of his cell, since he knows well who is calling him, lifts up his eyes and sees an astonishing giant, hideous and dreadful, who touches the clouds with his head while his feet stand upon the earth; from the earth upward, toward heaven, certain winged ones are rising, whose way this giant barred and whom he tried with his outstretched hands to cast down again to the earth — some of these winged ones he did indeed throw back, while others, having passed him, went on with their ascent unhindered. Because of these last the giant gnashed his teeth in wrath and vexation, while over the first, those cast down to the earth, he greatly rejoiced. At this time Father Anthony again heard a voice, uttered by an invisible being, which said to him: Anthony! Understand all that you have seen! Then the eyes of the holy father’s mind were opened, and he understood that these winged ones are the souls of people, who after the departure from this world hasten to heaven, to God; and this dreadful and hideous giant is the sleepless enemy of the human race, the evil spirit, who bars the way of the negligent, of those who lack diligence, who during their earthly life obeyed his crafty suggestions: their lot is to be cast into the darkness of hell. But the giant cannot hinder the ascent of those souls which were zealous for God, which laboured diligently to gain virtues and during their earthly life did not accept his crafty suggestions but resisted them as they ought. For such souls the road leading to heaven was open, since the giant was powerless before the virtues they had gained. Such was the vision that Father Anthony saw, by which the Lord showed him the future lot of every person; and after this the holy father increased still more his striving to labour successfully for the virtues and to withstand the enemy’s craft. With the same aim, that is, to kindle greater zeal for God in other fathers too, he told others of this vision. For instance, Abba Cronius relates that once Father Anthony told of this vision to a numerous assembly of monks; and with this Cronius supplements the account given above and notes that, before being made worthy of this vision, the teacher had for a whole year besought the Lord to reveal to him what awaits the righteous and the sinful souls of people after death. Besides this, Cronius adds that at the feet of this giant a huge lake like a sea was spread out, into which the winged ones cast down by his hand — the sinful souls — did indeed fall. And again: in the Latin collection of the lives of the fathers, where this vision of St Anthony is also related, it is said that the giant’s hands caught the winged ones and they fell into the lake only when they themselves stopped in the space below the giant’s hands and for some reason could no longer continue their ascent; while over those winged ones who did not stop in the space but continued their ascent, the giant only gnashed his teeth, since he saw with what joy the angels of God met them.