“The Antichrist will begin to seal people with his seal as if in order by this sign to save them from woes. Many will die on the roads. People will become like birds of prey hurling themselves on rotting matter. They will devour the bodies of the dead. But of what kind will be the people who will devour the dead? Those who are sealed with the seal of the Antichrist. Christians, even though they will not be given or sold bread because they do not have the seal on themselves, will not eat corpses; but those who have been sealed (with the mark of the beast), in spite of the availability of bread for them, will begin to devour them. Finally, he who is sealed (with the mark) will himself be killed by the antitype: on the seal (the mark) will be written the following: ‘I am yours.’ ‘Yes, you are mine.’ ‘I go willingly, not by force.’ ‘And I accept you in accordance with your will, and not by force.’ These are four utterances, or inscriptions, which will be written in the middle of this accursed seal…

“But when the accursed glory will see Enoch and Elijah preaching and telling the people that they should not receive the seal of the Antichrist, he will order them to be seized. But they will continue to persuade people not to receive the seal of the Antichrist. They will say that he who shows patience and is not sealed with the seal of the Antichrist will be saved, and God will unfailingly receive him into Paradise for the sake of the single fact that he did not receive the seal (the mark). And let everyone sign himself with the honorable cross, making the sign at every hour, for the sign of the cross frees man from the torments of hell; but the seal of the Antichrist leads man to the torments of hell. If you are hungry and want to eat, be patient for a little while and God, seeing your patience, will send you help from on high; you will be filled with life through the help of God the Most High. But if you are not patient, you will be sealed with the seal of this impure king, and will then repent of this.

“People will say to Enoch and Elijah, ‘Why then are those who received the seal thankful to Antichrist?’ Enoch and Elijah will say: ‘They are thankful, but who is really thankful? It is not the people who give thanks, but only the seal (the mark) itself.’ What is their thankfulness? It is that Satan has entered into them, is conceived in man’s feeling, and man does not know what has happened to him. The one who is sealed (marked) with the imprint of Antichrist becomes a demon; even though he asserts that he feels neither hunger nor thirst, he craves food and drink even more, and not only more, but seven times more than you. Be patient for only a little while. Do you not see rather that he who receives the seal (mark) of Antichrist will not live (he is dead in spirit and eternal suffering awaits him)? Is it possible you too desire to perish with the seal (the mark) in eternal suffering, there to be with those who were sealed with it? – where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?” (St Nilus, in Arch. Pantaleimon, A ray of light, pp. 83-84).