Of the holy monk Julianus.
Chapter XXIV.—Of the holy monk Julianus.
At this time too the celebrated Julianus, whom I have already mentioned, was forced to leave the desert and come to Antioch, for when the foster children of lies, the facile framers of calumny, I mean of course the Arians, were maintaining that this great man was of their faction, those lights of the truth Flavianus, Diodorus, and Aphraates sent Acacius, 771 an athlete of virtue who afterwards very wisely ruled the church at Berœa, to the famous Julianus 772 with the entreaty that he would take pity on so many thousands of men, and at the same time convict the enemy of lies and confirm the proclamation of the truth. The miracles worked by Julianus on his way to and from Antioch and in that vast city itself are described in my Religious History, which is easily accessible to all who wish to become acquainted with them. But I am sure that no one who has enquired into human nature will doubt that he attracted all the population of the city to our assembly, for the extraordinary is generally sure to draw all men after it. The fact of his having wrought great marvels is attested even by the enemies of the truth.
Before this time in the reign of Constantius the great Antonius 773 had acted in the same way in Alexandria, for he abandoned the desert and went up and down that city, telling all men that Athanasius was the preacher of the true doctrine and that the Arian faction were enemies of the truth. So those godly men knew how to adapt themselves to each particular opportunity, when to remain inactive, and at rest, and when to leave the deserts for towns.
Footnotes
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- 128:772
Julianus Sabas (i.e. Abba) an ascetic solitary of Osrhoëne, the district south of the modern Harran. He is the second of the saints of Theodoret’s “Religious History,” where we read that he lived on millet bread, which he ate once a week, and performed various miracles, which are recorded by Theodoret on the authority of Acacius.
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Antonius, St. Anthony, the illustrious and illiterate ascetic, friend and correspondent of Constantine (Soc. i. 13), the centre of many wild legends, was born in 250 a.d. in upper Egypt. Athanasius calls him the “founder of Asceticism.” In 335 he revisited Alexandria to oppose the Arians, as narrated in the text. He died in his cell in 355, bequeathing his “hair shirt. his two woollen tunics, and his bed, among Amathas and Macarius who watched his last hours, Serapion, and Athanasius.”