Antony’s Vision of the Reckoning in the Air

Many monks have reported, with the greatest agreement and one voice, that many other things like these were done by him. Yet these do not seem as marvelous as certain other things. For once, when he was about to eat, he got up to pray around the ninth hour, and he felt himself caught up in the spirit. Wonderful to tell, he stood and saw himself, as it were, from outside himself, and saw that he was being led through the air by certain beings. Then certain bitter and terrible beings stood in the air and wanted to stop him from passing through. When his guides opposed them, they demanded to know whether he was not answerable to them. And when they wanted to reckon up his account from his birth, Antony’s guides stopped them, saying, “The Lord has wiped out the sins from his birth. But from the time he became a monk and devoted himself to God, you are permitted to make a reckoning.” Then, when they accused him and could not prove anything against him, his way was free and unhindered. And at once he saw himself, as it were, coming and standing beside himself, and he was Antony again, as before. [a]

Then, forgetting to eat, he spent the rest of the day and the whole night groaning and praying. For he was astonished to see how mighty are the opponents we wrestle against, and through what labors we have to pass through the air. And he remembered that this is what the apostle said: “according to the prince of the power of the air.” For in the air the enemy has power to fight and to try to hinder those who pass through. That is why the apostle urged so earnestly, “Take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,” so that the enemy, “having nothing evil to say against us, may be ashamed.” And we who have learned this, let us remember the apostle when he says, “Whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know; God knows.” But Paul was caught up to the third heaven, and having heard things that cannot be told, he came down; while Antony saw that he had come into the air, and he contended until he was free.