When it is said
It is a moment from St Anthony’s life, not a prayer from a church service.
Pray his question when God seems to have stayed away, and read the answer he was given with it.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Alone in a tomb
St Athanasius of Alexandria tells how Anthony lived alone in a tomb some way from his village, where a friend brought him bread now and then. One night a crowd of demons beat him until he lay speechless on the ground. His friend found him as if dead and carried him to the village church. At midnight Anthony came round and asked to be carried back to the tomb.
St Athanasius, Life of Antony, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (1892)
A light in the tomb
Back in the tomb, Anthony could not stand, so he prayed lying down. Then he called out to the demons that he would not run from their blows. They came again in the shapes of lions, bears, snakes and wolves. At last he looked up and saw a ray of light come down through the roof. The demons vanished, his pain stopped, and he asked, “Where were You?”
St Athanasius, Life of Antony, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (1892)
What the words mean
“Anthony, I was here”
St Athanasius opens this part of the story by saying that the Lord had not forgotten Anthony’s struggle, even then, and had come to help him. When the voice had finished speaking, Anthony got up and prayed. He found such strength that his body felt stronger than it had been before.
St Athanasius, Life of Antony, in Greek, on Greek Wikisource; St Athanasius, Life of Antony, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (1892)
In Greek
Ποῦ ἦς; διὰ τί μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐφάνης, ἵνα μου τὰς ὀδύνας παύσῃς;
Καὶ φωνὴ γέγονε πρὸς αὐτόν·
Ἀντώνιε, ὧδε ἤμην, ἀλλὰ περιέμενον ἰδεῖν τὸ σὸν ἀγώνισμα.
Ἐπεὶ οὖν ὑπέμεινας, καὶ οὐχ ἡττήθης, ἔσομαί σοι ἀεὶ βοηθός, καὶ ποιήσω σε ὀνομαστὸν πανταχοῦ γενέσθαι.
From St Athanasius’s Life of Antony in Greek, on Greek Wikisource.