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| Appendix. Exile of Athanasius under Julian, 362-363.
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Appendix.
Exile of Athanasius under
Julian, 362–363.
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The fragment which
follows, containing an interesting report of a story told by Athanasius
to Ammonius, Bishop of Pachnemunis, is inserted here as furnishing
undesignedly important details as to the movements of Athanasius in
363. See Prolegg. ch. v. §3 h, also ch. ii. §9. It is
excerpted by Montfaucon from an account of the Abbat Theodore, written
for Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria (385–412) by a certain Ammon
(Acta SS. Maii, Tom. iii. Append., pp. 63–71). The writer
was at that time a bishop (see unknown): he was born about 335, as he
was seventeen years old when he embraced the monastic life a year
‘and more’ after the proclamation of Gallus as Cæsar
(Mar. 15, 351). About the time of the expulsion of Athanasius by
Syrianus he retired to Nitria, where he remained many years, and
finally returned to Alexandria, where he appears (infra) as one
of the clergy; the date of his elevation to the Episcopate cannot be
fixed, but it obviously cannot be as early as 356–7 (so D.C.B. i.
102 (2), and probably is much later even than 362, in which year he
would still be hardly twenty-eight. (He mentions the objections to the
election of Athanasius, who was probably 30 in 328, on the ground of
his youth.) Accordingly (apart from the different form of his name) he
cannot3706
| 3706 The
Articles in D.C.B. i. 102 (2) and (3), combine variously data belonging
to three distinct persons. (1) The old bishop ordained by Alexander
(see unknown, see Hist. Ar. 72 init.). Signs the synodal letter
of the Sardican Council; is one of the infirm prelates cruelly expelled
by George, along with coffins to bury them in case of the journey being
fatal (see also Apol. Fug. 7). (2) Another Ammonius, probably
not a signatory of Sardica (cf. Apol. Ar. 50, with Ep.
Fest. for 347), but a contemporary of Serapion, sent by Athanasius
with Serap. to Constantius in 353. He had been a monk, but was then
(Dracont. 7) bishop of Pachnemunis and part of Elearchia
(Tom. 10), in which capacity, along with other exiles of
356–7 (Hist. Ar. 72; Ap. Fug. 7), he attends the
Council of 362. He is the ‘Ammonius of blessed memory’ in
the text. (3) Ammon, born 335, baptized 352, monk at Tabenne and Nitria
352–367 (?), then at Alexandria, and finally (about 390) bishop
of an unknown see in Egypt: wrote a short account of S. Theodore for
Pope Theophilus. | be identified with either of the
Ammonii referred to in Tom. ad. Ant. 1, note 3; Hist. Ar.
72, &c. The elder of the two does not concern us here: the younger
(supr. pp. 483, 486), is the Ammonius to whom Athanasius told
the story in the hearing of Ammon, and was now dead. Of Hermon, Bishop
of Bubastis, mentioned as present along with Ammonius, Theophilus, and
Ammon when the story was told, nothing is known (except that the date
D.C.B. iii. 4 (2) is over 25 years too early). As he is not ‘of
blessed memory,’ he was possibly still living during the
Episcopate of Theophilus and Ammon. (There is nothing to identify him
with the bishop of Tanes in Tom. Ant. 1, 10.)
The story itself is given at second-hand, from
Ammon’s recollection of a statement by Athanasius some 12 to 15
years (at least) before he wrote. The prophetic details about Jovian
may therefore be put down to natural accretion (Letter 56, note
2). But (apart from the fact that Julian’s death must have been
rumoured long before the tardy official announcement of it, Tillem.
Emp. iv. 449 sqq., Prolegg. ubi supr.) that
Athanasius told of the φήμη
of Julian’s death among the monks of the Thebaid need not be
doubted. The story is one of a very large class, many of which are
fairly authenticated. To say nothing of the φήμη at the battle of Mycale; we have
in recent times the authority of Mr. R. Stuart Poole, of the British
Museum, for the fact that on the night of the death of the Duke of
Cambridge (July 9, 1850), Mr. Pooles’s brother ‘suddenly
took out his watch and said, “Note the time, the Duke of
Cambridge is dead,” and that the time proved to be
correct;’ also the case of Mr. Edmonds who saw at Leicester,
early in the morning of Nov. 4, 1837, an irruption of water into the
works of the Thames tunnel, by which a workman was drowned; (other
curious cases in ‘Phantasms of the Living’ vol. 2, pp. 367
sqq.). The letter or memoir from which this
‘Narratio’ is taken, was published by the Bollandists from
a Medicean ms., and it bears every internal
mark of genuineness. In what way it is integrally connected with the
Vita Antonii (Gwatkin, Studies, p. 101), except by the
fact that it happens to mention Antony, I fail to see. On the subject
of Theodore of Tabenne, the main subject of the memoir, see
Amélineau’s S. Pakhôme ( ut supra, p.
188), also infr. Letter 58, note 3.
“As I think your holiness was present and
heard, when his blessedness Pope Athanasius, in the presence of other
clergy of Alexandria and of my insignificance, formerly related in the
Great Church something about Theodorus3707
| 3707 Cf.
Vit. Ant. 60, and see below, letters 57, 58, and Acta SS.
Maii, vol. iii. pp. 334–357, and Appx.; also D.C.B.
iv. 954 (53). | ,
to the Ammonius of blessed memory, bishop of Elearchia3708
, and to Hermon, bishop of the city of
Bumastica3709
; I write only what is necessary to put
your reverence in mind of what he said. When the famous bishops were
wondering at the Blessed Antony, Pope Athanasius—for Antony was
often with him—said to them:—
I saw also at that season great men of God, who
are lately dead, Theodorus chief of the Tabennesian monks, and the
father of the monks around3710
| 3710 Opposite Hermupolis Magna in Upper Egypt. | Antinoopolis,
called Abbas Pammon. For when I was pursued by Julian, and was
expecting to be slain by him—for this news was shewn me by good
friends—these two came to me on the same day at Antinoopolis. And
having planned to hide with Theodorus, I embarked on his vessel, which
was completely covered in, while Abbas Pammon accompanied us. And when
the wind was unfavourable, I was very anxious and prayed; and the monks
with Theodore got out and towed the boat. And as Abbas Pammon was
encouraging me in my anxiety, I said ‘Believe me when I say that
my heart is never so trustful in time of peace as in time of
persecution. For I have good confidence that suffering for Christ, and
strengthened by His mercy, even though I am slain, I shall find mercy
with Him.’ And while I was still saying this, Theodorus fixed his
eyes on Abbas Pammon and smiled, while the other nearly laughed. So I
said to them, ‘Why have you laughed at my words, do you convict
me of cowardice?’ and Theodorus said to Abbas Pammon, ‘Tell
him why we smiled.’ At which the latter said, ‘You ought to
tell him.’ So Theodorus said, ‘in this very hour Julian has
been slain in Persia’ for so God had declared beforehand
concerning him: ‘the haughty man, the despiser and the boaster,
shall finish nothing3711
. But a Christian
Emperor shall arise who shall be illustrious, but shall live only a
short time3712
| 3712 Cf.
Letter 56, note 2. | . Wherefore you ought not to harass
yourselves by departing into the Thebaid, but secretly to go to the
Court, for you will meet him by the way, and having been kindly
received by him, will return to your Church. And he soon shall be taken
by God.’ And so it happened. From which cause I believe, that
many who are well pleasing to God live unnoticed, especially among the
monks. For those men unnoticed also, such as the blessed Amun and the
holy Theodorus3713
| 3713 On
this Theodore, see D.C.B. s.v. no. (67). | in the mountain of
Nitria, and the servant of God, the happy old man Pammon.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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