[61] Vita, ex duobus veteribus MSS., Bolland. II. p. 83
[62] He is said to have been born at Coma, near Heracleia, in
Middle Egypt, A. D. 251.
[63] Seemingly the Greek language and literature.
[64] A.D. 301. Galerius Valerius Maximinus (his real name was
Daza) had been a shepherd-lad in Illyria, like his uncle Galerius
Valerius Maximianus; and rose, like him, through the various grades of
the army to be co-Emperor of Rome, over Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor; a
furious persecutor of the Christians, and a brutal and profligate
tyrant. Such were the "kings of the world" from whom those old monks
fled.
[65] The lonely alluvial flats at the mouths of the Nile.
"Below the cliffs, beside the sea," as one describes them.
[66] Now the monastery of Deir Antonios, over the Wady el
Arabah, between the Nile and the Red Sea, where Antony's monks endure to
this day.
[67] Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, was the author of an
obscure schism calling itself the "Church of the Martyrs," which refused
to communicate with the rest of the Eastern Church.
[68] Arius (whose most famous and successful opponent was
Athanasius, the writer of this biography) maintained that the Son of God
was not co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, but created by Him out
of nothing, and before the world. His opinions were condemned in the
famous Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325.
[69] _I.e._ those were still heathens.
[70] Probably that of A.D. 341, when Gregory of Cappadocia,
nominated by the Arian Bishops, who had assembled at the Council of
Antioch, expelled Athanasius from the see of Alexandria, and great
violence was committed by his followers and by Philagrius the Prefect.
Athanasius meanwhile fled to Rome.
[71] _I.e._ celebrated there their own Communion.
[72] Evidently the primaeval custom of embalming the dead, and
keeping mummies in the house, still lingered among the Egyptians.
January 18.
S. PETER'S CHAIR, _at Rome_, A.D. 43.
S. PRISCA, _V. M., at Rome, about_ A.D. 50.
SS. PAUL AND THIRTY-SIX COMPANIONS, _MM., in Egypt_.
SS. ARCHELAA, THECLA, AND SUSANNA, _V., MM., at Salerno, in Italy_,
A.D. 285.
S. VOLUSIAN,_ B. C. of Tours, in France, circ._ A.D. 400.
SS. LIBERATA AND FAUSTINA, _VV., at Como, in Italy, circ._ A.D. 580.
S. LEOBARD, _H., Marmoutier, France, circ._ A.D. 583.
S. DEICOLUS, _Ab. of Lure, in Burgundy, beginning of 7th cent._
S. FACE, C., _at Cremona, in Italy_, A.D. 1272.