Nonetheless, he realised that he must be on guard.
Clouds were gathering thick and fast on the horizon and
he must prepare for the tempest. This prudent behaviour
enraged the Arians. They circulated new accusations:
that Athanasius had been in league with Magnentius, and
that consequently all his friends had deserted him, even
St. Antoni himself. Such rumours surprised and
scandalised the Faithful. Athanasius gave a signal to St.
Antoni, and the aged man descended once more from his
mountain. When he arrived, the whole of Alexandria
went out to meet him: rich and poor, men and women,
Christians and non-Christians, all hastened towards him.
They all looked at the man of the desert, bearing lightly
the weight of a whole century of living: his face bright,
his vision still good, and his feet firm. They brought to
him all the sick and the maimed and like unto his Saviour,
he healed them all. The multitudes waited on his every
word and on his radiant smile; his authority over them
was decisive for his mere presence made all who were in
it feel especially blessed. He confuted the calumniators
and comforted the Faithful.(37
Albeit, Emperor Constantius did not give a frank
order to arrest Abba Athanasius, though his rage against
him was continuously mounting, fed by the insidiousness
of the Arians and the insinuations of his wife. He feared
that the impassioned volatile Orient would rise in revolt
against a new persecution of this Successor, of St. Mark
who had become the object of so much affection and
reverence. He therefore awaited that inevitable hour in
which Athanasius would fall under the anathemas of the
coalesced Eusebian – Arians. With these thoughts, he
readily responded to the letter of Liberius, the new Bishop
of Rome, to convoke a Council at Milan.^38
elle
(Elle)
#1