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| To the Alexandrians.
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Letter CXXXIX.2456
To the Alexandrians.2457
| 2457 On the cruel
persecution roused by Valens in Alexandria shortly after the death
of Athanasius in 373, and the horrors perpetrated there, see the
letter of Peter, Athanasius’ successor, in Theod. iv.
19. |
1. I have already
heard of the persecution in Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, and, as
might be expected, I am deeply affected. I have observed the
ingenuity of the devil’s mode of warfare. When he saw that
the Church increased under the persecution of enemies and flourished
all the more, he changed his plan. He no longer carries on an
open warfare, but lays secret snares against us, hiding his hostility
under the name which they bear, in order that we may both suffer like
our fathers, and, at the same time, seem not to suffer for
Christ’s sake, because our persecutors too bear the name of
Christians. With these thoughts for a long time we sat still,
dazed at the news of what had happened, for, in sober earnest, both our
ears tingled on hearing of the shameless and inhuman heresy of your
persecutors. They have reverenced neither age, nor services to
society,2458
| 2458 ἐν
τῆ πολιτεὶ&
139·
καμάτους; or,
possibly, labours in life, i.e. ascetic life. The Ben.
ed. prefer the latter. | nor people’s
affection. They inflicted torture, ignominy, and exile; they
plundered all the property they could find; they were careless alike of
human condemnation and of the awful retribution to come at the hands of
the righteous Judge. All this has amazed me and all but driven me
out of my senses. To my reflections has been added this thought
too; can the Lord have wholly abandoned His Churches? Has the
last hour come, and is “the falling away” thus coming upon
us, that now the lawless one “may be revealed, the son of
perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God and is worshipped”?2459
But
if the temptation is for a season, bear it, ye noble athletes of
Christ. If the world is being delivered to complete, and final
destruction, let us not lose heart for the present, but let us await
the revelation from heaven, and the manifestation of our great God
and Saviour Jesus Christ. If all creation is to be dissolved,
and the fashion of this world transformed, why should we be
surprised that we, who are apart of creation, should feel the
general woe, and be delivered to afflictions which our just God
inflicts on us according to the measure of our strength, not letting
us “be tempted above that we are able, but with the temptation
giving us a way to escape that we may be able to bear
it”?2460
Brothers,
martyrs’ crowns await you. The companies of the
confessors are ready to reach out their hands to you and to welcome
you into their own ranks. Remember how none of the saints of
old won their crowns of patient endurance by living luxuriously and
being courted; but all were tested by being put through the fire of
great afflictions. “For some had trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings, and others were sawn asunder and were slain with the
sword.”2461
These are
the glories of saints. Blessed is he who is deemed worthy to
suffer for Christ; more blessed is he whose sufferings are greater,
since “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in
us.”2462
2. Had it but been possible for me to travel to
you I should have liked nothing better than to meet you, that I might
see and embrace Christ’s athletes, and share your prayers and
spiritual graces. But now my body is wasted by long sickness, so
that I can scarcely even leave my bed, and there are many who are lying
in wait for me, like ravening wolves, watching the moment when they may
be able to rend Christ’s sheep. I have therefore been
compelled to visit you by letter; and I exhort you first of all most
earnestly to pray for me, that for the rest of my remaining days or
hours I may be enabled to serve the Lord, in accordance with the gospel
of His kingdom. Next I beg you to pardon me for my absence and
for my delay in writing to you. I have only with great difficulty
found a man able to carry out my wishes. I speak of my son, the
monk Eugenius, by whom I beseech you to pray for me and for the whole
Church, and to write back news of you so that, when I hear, I may be
more cheerful. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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