Section 5

But the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not bear to see such resolve in a young man. He set himself to do against Antony what he was accustomed to doing against others. First he tried to draw him away from ascetic practice by placing before his mind the memory of his possessions, concern for his sister, family ties, love of money, desire for reputation, the many pleasures of food, and all the other comforts of life. Finally he suggested how difficult virtue is and how great the labor required for it. He also brought before him the weakness of the body and the long years that lay ahead. In short, he stirred up a great cloud of thoughts in Antony’s mind, hoping to turn him aside from his firm purpose.

But the enemy saw that he was too weak against Antony’s resolve. Instead, he was being defeated by Antony’s steadfastness, overthrown by his great faith, and made to fall by his continual prayers. He therefore put his confidence in the weapons “in the navel of his belly,” boasting in them—for these are his first snare for the young—and attacked the young man through sexual temptation. He troubled him by night and harassed him by day, so intensely that even those who saw Antony could recognize the struggle taking place between them. The devil suggested filthy thoughts; Antony drove them away by prayer. The devil inflamed him with desire; Antony, as though ashamed even to experience it, fortified his body with faith, prayer, and fasting.

One night the wretched devil even took the form of a woman and imitated a woman’s every gesture in order to deceive Antony. But Antony filled his mind with Christ, reflected on the nobility given through Christ and on the soul’s rational nature, and extinguished the burning coal of the devil’s deceit. Again the enemy suggested the sweetness of pleasure. Antony, angered and grieved, set against it the threat of the fire to come and the worm that does not die. By keeping these things before himself, he passed through the temptation unharmed.

All this brought shame upon the enemy. He who considered himself equal to God was now being mocked by a young man; he who boasted against flesh and blood was being driven off by a man living in the flesh. For the Lord was working with Antony—the Lord who for our sake took flesh and gave the body victory over the devil—so that everyone who truly struggles can say, “Not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”