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| His early ascetic life.
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3. And again as he went into the church,
hearing the Lord say in the Gospel993
, ‘be not
anxious for the morrow,’ he could stay no longer, but went out
and gave those things also to the poor. Having committed his sister to
known and faithful virgins, and put her into a convent994
| 994 Παρθενών: the earliest use of the word in this sense. Perhaps a
house occupied by Virgins is implied in Apol. c. Ar. 15. But at
this time virgins generally lived with their families. See D.C.A.
2021b (the reference to Tertullian is not relevant),
Eichhorn, pp. 4, sqq., 28–30. | to be brought up, he henceforth devoted
himself outside his house to discipline995
| 995 ἄσκησ*ς (so
throughout the Vita). | ,
taking heed to himself and training himself with patience. For there
were not yet so many monasteries996
| 996 Probably the word has in this place the sense of a monk’s
cell (D.C.A. 1220), as below, §39. | in Egypt, and no
monk at all knew of the distant desert; but all who wished to give heed
to themselves practised the discipline in solitude near their own
village. Now there was then in the next village an old man who had
lived the life of a hermit from his youth up. Antony, after he had seen
this man, imitated him in piety. And at first he began to abide in
places outside the village: then if he heard of a good man anywhere,
like the prudent bee, he went forth and sought him, nor turned back to
his own palace until he had seen him; and he returned, having got from
the good man as it were supplies for his journey in the way of virtue.
So dwelling there at first, he confirmed his purpose not to return to
the abode of his fathers nor to the remembrance of his kinsfolk; but to
keep all his desire and energy for perfecting his discipline. He
worked, however, with his hands, having heard, ‘he who is idle
let him not eat997
,’ and part he
spent on bread and part he gave to the needy. And he was constant in
prayer, knowing that a man ought to pray in secret unceasingly998
. For he had given such heed to what was read
that none of the things that were written fell from him to the ground,
but he remembered all, and afterwards his memory served him for
books.
4. Thus conducting himself, Antony was beloved by
all. He subjected himself in sincerity to the good men whom he visited,
and learned thoroughly where each surpassed him in zeal and discipline.
He observed the graciousness of one; the unceasing prayer of another;
he took knowledge of another’s freedom from anger and
another’s loving-kindness; he gave heed to one as he watched, to
another as he studied; one he admired for his endurance, another for
his fasting and sleeping on the ground; the meekness of one and the
long-suffering of another he watched with care, while he took note of
the piety towards Christ and the mutual love which animated all. Thus
filled, he returned to his own place of discipline, and henceforth
would strive to unite the qualities of each, and was eager to show in
himself the virtues of all. With others of the same age he had no
rivalry; save this only, that he should not be second to them in higher
things. And this he did so as to hurt the feelings of nobody, but made
them rejoice over him. So all they of that village and the good men in
whose intimacy he was, when they saw that he was a man of this sort,
used to call him God-beloved. And some welcomed him as a son, others as
a brother. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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