XVIII. Of Fauns and Satyrs
(There are also others whom the common people call Folletos, who invade the houses of simple peasants and are not deterred by water or exorcisms, and because they are not seen, they enter and afflict them with stones, wood, and household furniture, whose words are certainly heard in human fashion, even if their images do not appear. )
I remember finding most of these miracles in the Abbreviated Life and Miracles of the Most Blessed Anthony.
There are also others, I do not know whether I should say spirits or corporeal and wild beasts, who are called Fauns and Satyrs, of whom Jerome, in the Life of Blessed Paul, the first hermit, thus relates:
While Anthony was thinking that no monk had settled in the desert before him, it was revealed to him as the night fell that there was another much better in merits, whom he should hasten to visit.
Immediately, as the light broke, the venerable old man, supporting his weak limbs with a staff, began to want to go, where ... he did not know.
And when the sun was already blazing above him at midday, he saw a man mixed with a horse, to whom the opinion of the poets gave the name Hippocentaur, and seeing him, he armed his forehead with a salutary sign and said: "Hey, you, in what part of the world does the servant of God live here?"
But that barbarian, who was gnawing at something, and breaking words rather than speaking, between his horrendous mouths, sought a soothing address from the old man and with the extension of his right hand indicated the desired path, and thus, having passed through the open plains like a bird, he disappeared from the eyes of the astonisher.
So Antony - astonished and reeling with what he had seen - advanced further.
Without delay: in the midst of a rocky valley he saw a small man of no great size, with hooked nostrils, a forehead roughened with horns, the outermost part of whose body ended in the feet of a goat.
From this spectacle Antony seized the shield and breastplate of faith, like a good warrior: nevertheless, the aforementioned animal brought him palm fruits as a token of peace for his viaticum. When he recognized him, Antony pressed on, and asking who he was, he received this answer from him:
"I am a mortal and one of the inhabitants of the desert, whom the gentiles, deceived by various errors, worship, calling Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi.
I act as an ambassador for my flock: we pray that you pray to our common God for us, whom we know to have once come for the salvation of the world and whose sound went out to the whole earth, "
As he spoke thus, the long-lived traveler abundantly wet his face with tears, which the greatness of his heart had shed as an indication of the joy. For he rejoiced in the glory of Christ and in the destruction of Satan, and at the same time we marvel that he could understand his speech, and striking the ground with his staff he said:
"Woe to you, Alexandria, who worshipped wonders for God: woe to you, harlot city, in which the demons of the whole world have gathered! What are you going to say now? Beasts speak of Christ."
He had not yet finished his words, and as if in a fleeting flight the beast fled."
This, lest it should arouse anyone's scruple to disbelief, is now defended under King Constantine in the witness of the whole world. For such a man, brought alive to Alexandria, presented a great spectacle to the people, and afterwards his lifeless corpse, so that it would not be dissipated by the heat of summer, was brought to Antioch, infused with salt, so that it might be seen by the Emperor.
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