Antony in Alexandria

So all the people rejoiced when they heard the anti-Christian heresy anathematized by such a man. All the people in the city ran together to see Antony, and the Greeks, and those who are called their priests, came into the church, saying, “We ask to see the man of God,” for that is what they all called him. For there, too, the Lord cleansed many of demons and healed those who were insane. Many Greeks asked that they might just touch the old man, believing they would be helped. Certainly as many became Christians in those few days as one would have seen made in a year. Then, when some thought he was troubled by the crowds and for this reason turned them all away from him, he said, quite undisturbed, that there were not more of them than of the demons he wrestled with on the mountain.

But when he was leaving, and we were escorting him on his way, as we reached the gate a woman behind us cried out, “Wait, man of God! My daughter is terribly tormented by a demon. Wait, I beg you, or I too will harm myself with running.” When the old man heard her, and we asked him, he willingly stopped. As the woman came near, the child was thrown to the ground. But when Antony had prayed and called on the name of Christ, the child was raised up well, for the unclean spirit had gone out. The mother blessed God, and all gave thanks. And Antony himself rejoiced too, as he went away to the mountain as though to his own home. [b]