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ATHANASIUS having thus escaped the bloodstained hands of his
adversaries, Georgius, who was truly another wolf, was entrusted
with authority over the flock. He treated the sheep with more cruelty
than wolf, or bear, or leopard could have shewn. He compelled young
women who had vowed perpetual virginity, not only to disown the
communion of Athanasius, but also to anathematize the faith of the
fathers. The agent in his cruelty was Sebastianus, an officer in
command of troops. He ordered a fire to be kindled in the centre of
the city, and placed the virgins, who were stripped naked, close to
it, commanding them to deny the faith. Although they formed a most
sorrowful and pitiable spectacle for believers as well as for
unbelievers, they considered that all these dishonours conferred the
highest honour on them; and they joyfully received the blows inflicted
on them on account of their faith. All these facts shall be more
clearly narrated by their own pastor.
"About Lent, Georgius returned from Cappadocia, and added to the
evils which he had been taught by our enemies. After the Easter week
virgins were cast into prison, bishops were bound and dragged away by
the soldiers, the homes of widows and of orphans were pillaged,
robbery and violence went on from house to house, and the Christians
during the darkness of night were seized and torn away from their
dwellings. Seals were fixed on many houses. The brothers of the
clergy were in peril for their brothers' sake. These cruelties were
very atrocious, but still more so were those which were subsequently
perpetrated. In the week following the holy festival of Pentecost,
the people who were keeping a fast came out to the cemetery to pray,
because they all renounced any communion with Georgius. This vilest
of men was informed of this circumstance, and he incited Sebastianus
the military commander, a Manichean , to attack the people; and,
accordingly, on the Lord's day itself he rushed upon them with a
large body of armed soldiers wielding naked swords, and bows, and
arrows. He found but few Christians in the act of praying, for most
of them had retired on account of the lateness of the hour. Then he
did such deeds as might be expected from one who had lent his ears to
such teachers. He ordered a large fire to be lighted, and the virgins
to be brought close to it, and then tried to compel them to declare
themselves of the Arian creed. When he perceived that they were
conquering, and giving no heed to the fire, he ordered them to be
stripped naked, and to be beaten until their faces for a long while
were scarcely recognisable. He then seized forty men, and inflicted
on them a new kind of torture. He ordered them to be scourged with
branches of palm-trees, retaining their thorns; and by these their
flesh was so lacerated that some because of the thorns fixed fast in
them had again and again to put themselves under the surgeon's hand;
others were not able to bear the agony and died. All who survived,
and also the virgins, were then banished to the Greater Oasis. They
even refused to give up the bodies of the dead to their kinsfolk for
burial, but flung them away unburied, and hid them just as they
pleased, in order that it might appear that they had nothing to do with
these cruel transactions, and were ignorant of them. But they were
deceived m this foolish expectation: for the friends of the slain,
while they rejoiced at the faithfulness of the deceased, deeply
lamented the loss of the corpses, and spread abroad a full account of
the cruelty that had been perpetrated.
"The following bishops were banished from Egypt and from Libya:
Ammonius, Muius, Caius, Philo, Hermes, Plenius,
Psinosiris, Nilammon, Agapius, Anagamphus, Marcus,
Dracontius, Adelphius, another Ammonius, another Marcus, and
Athenodorus; and also the presbyters Hierax and Dioscorus . These
were all driven into exile in so cruel a manner that many died on the
road, and others at the place of their banishment. The persecutors
caused the death of more than thirty bishops. For, like Ahab, their
mind was set on rooting out the truth, had it been possible ."
Athanasius also, in a letter addressed to the virgins who were treated
with so much barbarity, uses the following wordS: "Let none of you
be grieved although these impious heretics grudge you burial and prevent
your corpses being carried forth. The impiety of the Arians has
reached such a height, that they block up the gates, and sit like so
many demons around the tombs, in order to hinder the dead from being
interred."
These and many other similar atrocities were perpetrated by Georgius
in Alexandria.
The holy Athanasius was well aware that there was no spot which could
be considered a place of safety for him; for the emperor had promised a
very large reward to whoever should bring him alive, or his head as a
proof of his death.
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