ufo_data/bin/rr0/tran300.md



- In a small and rocky valley closed off on all sides, he saw a snuffling dwarf with horns on its head and forked extremities like those of goats. At this sight, Antoine, like a good soldier, seized the shield of faith and the helmet of hope: nevertheless, the creature offered him the fruit of the palm tree to sustain him on his journey and as a kind of peace offering. Antoine, seeing this, stopped and asked him who he was. The answer he received was this: "I am a mortal being and one of the inhabitants of the Desert whom the Gentiles abused by designating him in an erroneous cult of various forms under the names of Fauns, Satyrs and Incubi. I am sent to represent my people. We beg you to solicit for us the favor of your Lord and ours, who, we have learned, once came to save the world, and whose voice has penetrated the whole earth." As he uttered these words, tears streamed down the old traveler's cheeks, witnesses of his deep emotion, and which he shed in the fullness of his joy. He rejoiced in the glory of Christ and the destruction of Satan, and marveled at being able to understand the language of the satyr during all this time, and, striking the ground with his staff, he said: "Woe to you, Alexandria, who, instead of God, have worshiped monsters! Woe to you, city of prostitutes, in which the demons of the whole world rush together. What have you to say now? Beasts that speak of Christ, and you who, instead of God, worship monsters..." He had not finished speaking when - as if it had wings - the wild creature fled far away. Let no one have any scruple in believing this incident; its truth is affirmed by what happened when Constantine was on the throne, an affair of which the whole world was witness. For a man of this kind was brought alive to Alexandria and shown to the people as a wonderful spectacle. Later, to prevent his corpse from rotting in the heat, it was preserved in salt and taken to Antioch so that the Emperor could see it. [Saint Jerome, *The Life of Saint Antoine the First Hermit*, Chapter 8]{.source}