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THE emperor Valens having issued an edict commanding that the
orthodox should be persecuted both in Alexandria and in the test of
Egypt, depopulation and ruin to an immense extent immediately
followed: some were dragged before the tribunals, others cast into
prison, and many tortured in various ways, and in fact all sorts of
punishments were inflicted upon persons who aimed only at peace and
quiet. When these outrages had been perpetrated at Alexandria just as
Lucius thought proper, Euzoius returned to Antioch, and Lucian the
Arian, attended by the commander-in-chief of the army with a
considerable body of troops, immediately proceeded to the monasteries
of Egypt, where the general in person assailed the assemblage of holy
men with greater fury even than the ruthless soldiery. On reaching
these solitudes they found the monks engaged in their customary
exercises, praying, healing diseases, and casting out devils. Yet
they, regardless of these extraordinary evidences of Divine power,
suffered them not to continue their solemn devotions, but drove them
out of the oratories by force. Rufinus declares that he was not only a
witness of these cruelties, but also one of the sufferers. Thus in
them were renewed those things which are spoken of by the apostle:
'for they were mocked, and had trial of scourgings, were stripped
naked, put in bonds, stoned, slain with the sword, went about in the
wilderness clad in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in
deserts, in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.' In all
these things 'they obtained a good report' for their faith and their
works, and the cures which the grace of Christ wrought by their
hands. But as it appears Divine Providence permitted them to endure
these evils, 'having for them provided something better,' that
through their sufferings others might obtain the salvation of God, and
this subsequent events seem to prove. When therefore these wonderful
men proved superior to all the violence which was exercised toward
them, Lucius in despair advised the military chief to send the fathers
of the monks into exile: these were the Egyptian Macarius, and his
namesake of Alexandria, both of whom were accordingly banished to an
island where there was no Christian inhabitant, and in this island
there was an idolatrous temple, and a priest whom the inhabitants
worshiped as a god. On the arrival of these holy men at the island,
the demons of that place were filled with fear and trepidation. Now it
happened at the same time that the priest's daughter became suddenly
possessed by a demon, and began to act with great fury, and to
overturn everything that came in her way; nor was any force sufficient
to restrain her, but she cried with a loud voice to these saints of
God, saying: -- 'Why are ye come here to cast us out from hence
also?' Then did the men there also display the peculiar power which
they had received through Divine grace: for having east out the demon
from the maid, and presented her cured to her father, they led the
priest himself, and also all the inhabitants of the island to the
Christian faith. Whereupon they immediately brake their images in
pieces, and changed the form of their temple into that of a church;
and having been baptized, they joyfully received instruction in the
doctrines of Christianity. Thus these marvelous individuals, after
enduring persecution on account of the 'homoousian' faith, were
themselves more approved, became the means of salvation to others, and
confirmed the truth.
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