His Life After the Persecution

When at last the persecution ceased, and the blessed Bishop Peter had borne his witness, Antony left and withdrew again to his cell. There he was a martyr daily in his conscience, contending in the struggles of faith. His discipline was much more severe, for he was always fasting, and he wore a garment of hair on the inside with skin on the outside, which he kept until his death. He never bathed his body with water to get rid of dirt, and he never washed his feet, or even let himself so much as put them in water unless necessity forced him. No one ever saw him undressed, or his body naked at all, until after his death, when he was buried. [a]