The Eucharist was one potent source of God’s grace. There were others. Above
all, there were certain people so beloved by God, so infused with his grace, that they
were both models of virtue and powerful wonder-workers. These were the saints. In
the early church, the saints had largely been the martyrs, but martyrdom ended with
Constantine. The new saints of the fourth and fifth centuries had to find ways to be
martyrs even while alive. Like Saint Symeon Stylites (c.390–459), they climbed tall
pillars and stood there for decades; or, like Saint Antony (250–356), they entered
tombs to fight, heroically and successfully, with the demons (whose reality was as
little questioned as the existence of germs is today). They were the “athletes of
Christ,” greatly admired by the surrounding community. Purged of sin by their ascetic
rigors—giving up their possessions, fasting, praying, not sleeping, not engaging in sex
—holy men and women offered compelling role models. Twelve-year-old Asella,
born into Roman high society, was inspired by such models to remain a virgin: she
shut herself off from the world in a tiny cell where, as her admirer Saint Jerome put
it, “fasting was her pleasure and hunger her refreshment.”^7
Beyond offering models of Christian virtue, the saints interceded with God on
behalf of their neighbors and played social peace-keeper. Saint Athanasius told the
story of Saint Antony: after years of solitude and asceticism the saint emerged
as if from some shrine, initiated into the mysteries and filled with God..
.. When he saw the crowd [awaiting him], he was not disturbed, nor did
he rejoice to be greeted by so many people. Rather, he was wholly
balanced, as if he were being navigated by the Word [of God] and
existing in his natural state. Therefore, through Antony the Lord healed
many of the suffering bodies of those present, and others he cleansed of
demons. He gave Antony grace in speaking, and thus he comforted
many who were grieved and reconciled into friendship others who were
quarreling.^8
Healer of illnesses and of disputes, Antony brought spiritual, physical, and civic
peace. This was power indeed.
But who would control it? Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria laid claim to Antony’s
legacy by writing about it. Yet writing was only one way to appropriate and harness
the power of the saints. When holy men and women died, their power lived on in
their relics (whatever they left behind: their bones, hair, clothes, sometimes even the
