The Egyptian Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries were much afflicted by the devil and his illusions, which frequently involved animals. Thus ‘all the creatures of the desert’ gathered threateningly around Saint Anthony's hermitage in the inner mountain. However, Anthony told them he would let them devour him, if they were there by God's will, but if they had been gathered by the devil, then they must flee, and so they did. Another time, Anthony was able to cross the Nile safely despite the presence of many crocodiles. Whenever Saint Pachomius needed to cross a river, crocodiles ‘would carry him with the utmost subservience, and set him down at whatever spot he indicated’. A monk of Sapsas was so full of grace that he was able to welcome lions into his cave and offer them food in his lap. Saint Jerome, in his Vita of Saint Hilarion, claimed that his subject was able to tame animals who had gone wild, giving the example of a camel which had become possessed by the devil and trampled people to death.

If some of the time wild animals were merely illusions of the devil, trying to play on the human fears of holy men, much of the time the animals were meant to be genuine wild beasts. The essential purpose of all these stories was to demonstrate that both the wild forces of nature and malign supernatural forces were subject to the authority of the Christian holy man. His power was derived through faith alone, or from another perspective, ascetic purity. In principle this power is open to any human with sufficient faith in Christ.