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To the Alexandrians

Dionysius of Alexandria

Section 3

About this work

Author: Dionysius of Alexandria

3. And after we and they together had enjoyed a

‹ Section 2 Section 4 ›

very

brief

season

of

rest

,

this

pestilence

us

,

—

a

calamity

truly

more

dreadful

to

them

than

all

other

objects

of

dread

,

and

more

intolerable

than

any

other

kind

of

trouble

whatsoever

;

and

a

misfortune

which

,

as

a

certain

writer

of

their

own

declares

,

alone

prevails

over

all

hope

.

To

us

,

however

,

it

was

not

so

;

but

in

no

less

measure

than

other

ills

it

proved

an

instrument

for

our

training

and

probation

.

For

it

by

no

means

kept

aloof

from

us

,

although

it

spread

with

greatest

violence

among

the

heathen

.

Notes

5
Dionysius is giving a sort of summary of all the calamities which befell the Alexandrian church from the commencement of his episcopal rule: namely, first, persecution, referring to that which began in the last year of the reign of Philip; then war, meaning the civil war of which he speaks in his Epistle to Fabius; then pestilence, alluding to the sickness which began in the time of Decius, and traversed the land under Gallus and Volusianus.—Vales.