in their pristine vigour; men who not only had the power of
binding and loosening in Heaven, but of healing the diseased,
and raising the dead on earth. They gathered from every
province to bear witness to the Truth of the same Holy Spirit
Who spoke by all, that they may invest traditional Faith with
infallible words, and raise an everlasting bulwark between the
Church and heresy. They assembled for the Verity of the
Creed, and the Glory of the Consubstantial. Among others
were St. Marcarius of Jerusalem, illustrious for many
miracles; St. Eustathius of Antioch, who had raised a dead
man to life; St. Leontius of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, ‘the
equal of the angels’; St. Hypatius of Gangra, who years later
attained the crown of martyrdom himself, and breathed out
his spirit in a petition for his murderers; St. Paul of
Neocaesarea, who had been mutilated in the persecutions of
Licinius; St. Archilleus of Larissa, the Athanasius of
Thessaly and St. Alexander of Byzantium, at whose
supplication Divine Vengeance overwhelmed Arius in later
years.
The Council of Nicea was outstandingly Universal. It
counted among its members bishops from as far as Spain to
the West; from Persia, Cythia and all Churches of the East.^1
- To this reverent company came Abba Alexandros
Pope of Alexandria with twenty of his bishops, among
them were St. Potamon of Heracla, who was martyred
some years later by the Arians, and St. Paphnuti from the
Thebaid, renowned for his confession and his sanctity.
The most outstanding and most formidable
personality to come from the ancient land of the Nile was
Athanasius.^2 He was only twenty-five years old and a
deacon, two reasons which instigated his antagonists to
protest against his presence. Soon however Athanasius
displayed such deep learning, such acquaintance with the