Anthony, St
Anthony, St.
A great demon of enormous stature is said to have approached Anthony one day to offer his services. In response, the saint looked at him sideways and spat in his face. The demon vanished without a word and did not dare to appear on Earth for a long time afterward. In response to this encounter St. Anthony once said: "I fear the demon no more than I fear a fly, and with the sign of the cross I can at once put him to flight."
St. Athanasius, who wrote the biography St. Anthony, mingled his hero's adventures with the devil and certain other incidents that contrast strangely. Some philosophers, astonished at the great wisdom of Anthony, asked him in what book he had discovered his doctrine. The saint pointed with one hand to the Earth, and the other to the sky. "There are my books," said he, "I have no others. If men will design to study as I do the marvels of creation, they will find wisdom enough there. Their spirit will soon soar from the creation to the Creator."