The Monks Fill the Mountains

While Antony was speaking in this way, everyone rejoiced. In some the love of virtue grew, in others carelessness was thrown off, and in others self-conceit was checked. All of them were persuaded to despise the attacks of the Evil One, and they marveled at the grace the Lord had given Antony for discerning spirits. So their cells in the mountains were like dwellings filled with holy bands of men who sang psalms, loved reading, fasted, prayed, rejoiced in the hope of things to come, labored at giving alms, and kept love and harmony with one another. [a]

Truly it was possible to see, as it were, a land set apart by itself, filled with piety and justice. For then there was no wrongdoer there, no one wronged, and no abuse from the tax collector, but instead a multitude of ascetics, and the one purpose of them all was to aim at virtue. So anyone who looked at the cells again and saw such good order among the monks would lift up his voice and say, “How lovely are your dwellings, O Jacob, and your tents, O Israel! They are like shady glens, and like a garden beside a river; like tents that the Lord has pitched, and like cedars beside the waters.”