Section 91

Antony knew this Egyptian custom and feared that his own body might be treated in the same way. So he hurried away. After saying farewell to the monks of the outer mountain, he entered the inner mountain where he usually lived.

A few months later he became ill. He called the two men who were there with him. They had remained on the mountain for fifteen years, practicing the ascetic life and caring for Antony because of his old age.

He said to them:

“I am going, as Scripture says, the way of the fathers, for I perceive that the Lord is calling me.

“As for you, remain watchful and do not destroy the fruit of your long ascetic discipline. Rather, as though you were only now beginning, preserve your resolve with zeal. You know the treachery of the demons: how fierce they are, yet how little power they possess. Do not fear them. Instead, always breathe Christ and put your trust in him.

“Live as though dying every day. Pay attention to yourselves and remember the exhortations you have heard from me. Have no fellowship with the schismatics and no dealings at all with the heretical Arians. You know how I avoided them because of their hostility toward Christ and the strange doctrines of their heresy.

“Be diligent, therefore, always to follow first God and then the saints, so that after death they too may receive you as familiar friends into the eternal dwellings. Keep these things in mind and reflect on them.

“And if you have any concern for me and remember me as a father, do not allow anyone to take my body back to Egypt. Otherwise they may place me in a house. This is why I entered the mountain and came here. You know how I always rebuked those who followed that custom and urged them to stop.

“So bury my body yourselves and conceal it under the ground. Keep this instruction of mine: let no one know the place except you two alone. At the resurrection of the dead I will receive this body back incorruptible from the Savior.

“Divide my garments. Give Athanasius the bishop one sheepskin and the garment on which I am lying. He himself gave it to me when it was new, but it has grown old with me. Give Serapion the bishop the other sheepskin. Keep the hair garment for yourselves.

“And now farewell, my children. Antony is departing and is no longer with you.”