When, it says, the devil, acting through the Antichrist, has arrayed
himself against the Church, her chosen and supreme ones, who have spit upon the
noisy public approbations and the pleasures of the world, will flee to a manner
of life devoid of every evil and abundant in every virtue, according to
Methodios. And there they will avoid the assaults from both the hostile demons
and people. [128] Of course, the actual physical desert will save those fleeing
from the plot of the Apostate <devil> in the “mountains and caves and the
dens of the earth,” as did the martyrs previously for three-and-a-half years,
that is, the one thousand two hundred
sixty days, during which apostasy will prevail. The Great Official, “who
does not allow anyone to be tested beyond his strength,” will deliver us from
this, granting us steadfast disposition and manly strength in the assaults
against us, so that “legitimately contending” “against the principalities and
powers of darkness” we might be adorned with the “crown of righteousness” and
receive the rewards of victory. For to him are due victory and power through
the weak ones, <him> who routs the strong “aerial powers,” together with
the Father and the Life-giving Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. (Andrew
of Caesarea, Commentary on the
Apocalypse, Section 11, chapter 33, in Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary
on the Apocalypse [trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou; The Fathers of
the Church 123 [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2011] 141)
