The Third Exile and Flight of Athanasius

Those who had gained complete control over the mind of Constantius, and swayed him as they pleased, reminded him that Athanasius had caused the quarrels between his brother and himself, quarrels that had nearly broken the bonds of kinship and set off a civil war. These arguments persuaded Constantius not only to banish the holy Athanasius but to condemn him to death. So he sent Sebastian, a military commander, with a very large body of soldiers to kill him, as though he were a criminal. How the one led the attack and the other escaped is best told in the words of the man who suffered so much and was so wonderfully saved. [a]

This is what Athanasius writes in his Defense of His Flight: “Let the circumstances of my withdrawal be examined, and let the testimony of the other side be gathered. For Arians came along with the soldiers, both to spur them on and to point me out to those who did not know me. If they are not moved to sympathy by the story I tell, let them at least listen in the silence of shame. It was night, and some of the people were keeping vigil, because a communion was expected. Suddenly a body of soldiers advanced on them: a general and five thousand armed men with drawn swords, bows and arrows, and clubs, as I have already said. The general surrounded the church and posted his men in close order, so that those inside could not get out. I did not think it right to leave the people in such a time of confusion. I thought I ought rather to be the first to meet the danger. So I sat down on my throne and asked the deacon to read a psalm, and the people to respond, ‘For his mercy endures forever.’ Then I told them all to go back to their own homes. But now the general forced his way into the church with the soldiers and surrounded the sanctuary to arrest me. The clergy and the lay people who had stayed behind loudly begged me to withdraw. I firmly refused to do so until all the others had gone. I stood up, had a prayer said, and told all the people to leave. ‘It is better,’ I said, ‘for me to meet the danger alone than for any of you to be hurt.’ When most of the people had left the church, and just as the rest were following, the monks and some of the clergy who had stayed came up and drew me out. And so, as the truth is my witness, with the Lord leading and protecting me, we passed through the middle of the soldiers, some of whom were posted around the sanctuary while others were marching about the church. So I went out unseen, and I fervently thanked God that I had not abandoned the people, but that after they had been sent away in safety I had been able to escape from the hands of those who sought my life.” [b]