One Sunday she escorted the two children to Church,
and Providence so willed that the celebrant of the Liturgy on
that day would be the illustrious Athanasius. As he scanned
his flock during the general blessing, his eagle eyes noted the
two children with the Ethiopian woman. Somehow, he felt
an inward urge to find out who they were, so he sent a
deacon to ask them to stay after the Service. Upon
interrogating them and discovering that they were orphans,
he took them under his tutelage then and there. He entrusted
the girl to some devout women to educate her; and when she
attained a marriageable age, he had her married to a young
man whom he knew well. She was destined to become the
mother of one of the greatest men who ever adorned the
Chair of St. Mark: namely Kyrillos, the "Pillar of Faith" and
the Pope who succeeded her brother.
- As for Theophilus, he became one of the many
disciples of Athanasius. Endowed with a keen intelligence,
he assimilated from his apostolic teacher much of both his
erudition and his zeal. He was therefore appointed one of his
secretaries and at the same time ordained a priest. In this
clerical position, he displayed a learning and an eloquence
that won for him popular favour. In consequence, when
Abba Timotheos died, Theophilus was elected and
consecrated the twenty-third Pope of the Church of
Alexandria. - Abba Theophilus expressed his zeal in a keen desire
to erect new churches. One day, as he sat in the garden of
his teacher, Athanasius, he surveyed the panorama before
him and perceived a discordant note. A few paces away,
some mounds scarred the scenery. It struck him then that his
great teacher had wished to build a church in the names of
John the Baptist and the prophet Elijah, and it would be most