14. And so for nearly
twenty years he continued training himself in solitude, never going
forth, and but seldom seen by any. After this, when many were eager and
wishful to imitate his discipline, and his acquaintances came and began
to cast down and wrench off the door by force, Antony, as from a
shrine, came forth initiated in the mysteries and filled with the
Spirit of God. Then for the first time he was seen outside the fort by
those who came to see him. And they, when they saw him, wondered at the
sight, for he had the same habit of body as before, and was neither
fat, like a man without exercise, nor lean from fasting and striving
with the demons, but he was just the same as they had known him before
his retirement. And again his soul was free from blemish, for it was
neither contracted as if by grief, nor relaxed by pleasure, nor
possessed by laughter or dejection, for he was not troubled when he
beheld the crowd, nor overjoyed at being saluted by so many. But he was
altogether even as being guided by reason, and abiding in a natural
state. Through him the Lord healed the bodily ailments of many present, and cleansed others from evil spirits. And He gave grace to Antony in speaking, so that he consoled many that were sorrowful, and set those at variance at one, exhorting all to prefer the love of Christ before all that is in the world. And while he exhorted and advised them to remember the good things to come, and the loving-kindness of God towards us, ‘Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,’ he persuaded many to embrace the solitary life. And thus it happened in the end that cells arose even in the mountains, and the desert was colonised by monks, who came forth from their own people, and enrolled themselves for the citizenship in the heavens.
15. But when he was obliged to cross the
Arsenoitic Canal—and the
occasion of it was the visitation of the brethren—the canal was
full of crocodiles. And by simply praying, he entered it, and all they
with him, and passed over in safety. And having returned to his cell, he applied himself to the same noble and valiant exercises; and by frequent conversation he increased the eagerness of those already monks, stirred up in most of the rest the love of the discipline, and speedily by the attraction of his words cells multiplied, and he directed them all as a father.