er, to terrify him with dismal noises; and once he so
grievously beat him, that he lay almost dead, covered with bruises and
wounds; and in this condition he was one day found by his friend, who
visited him from time to time to supply him with bread, during all the
time he lived in the ruinous sepulchre. When he began to come to
himself, though not yet able to stand, he cried out to the devils, while
he yet lay on the floor, "Behold! here I am; do all you are able against
me: nothing shall ever separate me from Christ my Lord." Hereupon the
fiends appearing again, renewed the attack, and alarmed him with
terrible clamors, and a variety of spectres, in hideous shapes of the
most frightful wild beasts, which they assumed to dismay and terrify
him; till a ray of heavenly light breaking in upon him, chased them
away, and caused him to cry out: "Where wast thou, my Lord and my
Master? Why wast thou not here, from the beginning of my conflict, to
assuage my pains!" A voice answered: "Antony, I was here the whole time;
I stood by thee, and beheld thy combat: and because thou hast manfully
withstood thine enemies, I will always protect thee, and will render thy
name famous throughout the earth." At these words the saint arose, much
cheered, and strengthened, to pray and return thanks to his deliverer.
Hitherto the saint, ever since his retreat, in 272, had lived in
solitary places not very far from his village; and St. Athanasius
observes, that before him many fervent persons led retired lives in
penance and contemplation, near the towns; others remaining in the towns
imitated the same manner of life. Both were called ascetics, from their
being entirely devoted to the most perfect exercises of mortification
and prayer, according to the import of the Greek word. Before St.
Athanasius, we find frequent mention made of such ascetics: and Origen,
about the year 219,[6] says they always abstained from flesh, no less
than the disciples of Pythagoras. Eusebius tells us that St. Peter of
Alexandria practised austerities equal to those of the ascetics; he says
the same of Pamphilus; and St. Jerom uses the same expression of
Pierius. St. Antony had led this manner of life near Coma, till
resolving to withdraw into the deserts about the year 285, the
thirty-fifth of his age, he crossed the eastern branch of the Nile, and
took up his abode in the ruins of an old castle on the top of the
mountains; in which close solitude he lived almost twen