His Early Life of Discipline

Once again, as he went into the church, he heard the Lord say in the Gospel, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” He could not stay any longer, but went out and gave those things also to the poor. He entrusted his sister to virgins he knew to be faithful, and placed her in a house of virgins to be brought up. From then on he gave himself to the discipline outside his house, paying attention to himself and training himself with patience. For there were not yet many monasteries in Egypt, and no monk at all knew the far desert. Everyone who wanted to pay attention to himself practiced the discipline alone, not far from his own village. Now at that time there was an old man in the next village who had lived the life of a hermit from his youth. When Antony saw this man, he imitated him in godliness. At first he began to stay in places outside the village. Then, if he heard of a good man anywhere, he went out and looked for him like a wise bee, and did not turn back to his own home until he had seen him. Then he came back, having received from the good man supplies, as it were, for his journey on the way of virtue. So, living there at first, he strengthened his resolve not to go back to the home of his fathers or to think of his relatives, but to put all his desire and energy into perfecting his discipline. He worked with his hands, however, since he had heard, “Whoever is idle, let him not eat.” He spent part of what he earned on bread and gave part to the needy. And he prayed constantly, knowing that a person ought to pray in secret without ceasing. For he had paid such attention to the reading that nothing written fell from him to the ground; he remembered it all, and afterward his memory served him in place of books. [a]

Living this way, Antony was loved by everyone. He sincerely submitted himself to the good men he visited, and learned thoroughly how each of them surpassed him in zeal and discipline. He observed the graciousness of one and the unceasing prayer of another. He took note of one man’s freedom from anger and another’s kindness. He paid attention to one as he kept watch through the night, to another as he studied. One he admired for his endurance, another for his fasting and sleeping on the ground. He carefully watched the gentleness of one and the patience of another, while he took note of the devotion to Christ and the love for one another that moved them all. Filled with all this, he went back to his own place of discipline, and from then on he would strive to combine in himself the qualities of each and was eager to show the virtues of all of them in himself. He had no rivalry with others of his own age, except this one thing: that he should not come second to them in the higher things. And he did this in such a way as to hurt no one’s feelings, but made them glad for him. So all the people of that village, and the good men he spent time with, seeing what kind of man he was, used to call him God’s beloved. Some welcomed him as a son, others as a brother.