It seems that another great influence in the life of Athanasius dates from the period of the persecution, and may have been actually a result of it.  The persecuting of the third century had driven many Alexandrian Christians to take refuge in the Egyptian desert; and some had found there a life so congenial to Christian piety that, when the danger was over, they did not return.  Thus was born monasticism which was destined, when persecutions were past, to take their place as the leaven of the Church’s life.  The impetus to asceticism continued in the interval of peace; and thirteen years before Athanasius was born a young Copt of the name of Antony had taken up his abode as a solitary in a ruined fort at Pispir, on the right bank of the Nile. (more…)