continuing to support Proterius, and regarded the
Egyptians as rebels deserving of punishment.
- Reacting to this attitude, Abba Timotheos
convoked his Bishops, and together they re-affirmed their
excommunication of the Council of Chalcedon, and of all
who accepted its decrees. The, with a sense of confident
rightfulness, he proceeded on a pastoral tour.
During his absence, Count Dionysius, a high
ranking officer in the imperial Army, arrived at
Alexandria, with orders to subdue the Egyptians to
Proterius at all costs. In his attempt to do so, he
committed indescribable outrages against them that only
increased their resistance and their estrangement.
St. Mark’s rightful successor returned from his
tour to find the gates of his metropolis closed in his face
by order of Count Dionysius. The Egyptians felt more
outraged at this imperial arrogance. As their anger
mounted in proportion to the tyrannous treatment, they
decided to put an end to this tug of war. So they
crowded around the palace occupied by Proterius, who
became panic-stricken and fled to the baptistry of his
church. In their fury they followed him and killed him.^2 - At this total disregard of threats and persecutions,
and this open rebellion, Emperor Marcianus ordered the
exile of Abba Timotheos and his brother to the very same
island of Gangra where Dioscorus had been exiled. He
hoped that thereby he would break their spirit and that of
his people.^3 But this was not to be. And to his dismay,
he heard that when the Alexandrian Patriarch was taken to
his exile by land instead of by sea in accordance with his
decree, and passed through Palestine, Lebanon and Asia