ARCAF, GIOVANNI. - Bishop of Memphis and leader of the Melitians of Egypt (4th century). A singular figure of a troublemaker, known for his intrigues against St. Athanasius.
Under his leadership, the Melitian party displayed great activity in order to ruin the bishop of Alexandria. Among other things, A. persuaded the Melitian bishop Arsenius (v.) of Hypsele to hide himself, and then had the rumor spread that the vanished man had been killed by Athanasius for the purpose of magic, after having had his hand cut off. But Athanasius managed to discover the traces of the living dead man, and the caesar Dalmatius was ordered not to pursue the judicial inquiry against the accused (334). A., having fallen into disgrace, deplored his own conduct and announced to the emperor Constantine his reconciliation with Athanasius. The following year, however, he renewed his machinations, this time allied with the Arians and their protectors, and, at the Synod of Tyre (335), his party resumed the campaign of old calumnies. A. and his followers were considered victims of an unjust oppression and were therefore admitted by the Council to the communion of the Church. A., having returned to Alexandria, wished to exploit his success, but with so little moderation that Constantine found himself compelled to exile him as a disturber of the order.
BIBL.: S. Athanasius, Apologia, passim: PG 25, 247 ff.; Socrates, Hist. eccl., I, 27 ff.; Sozomen, Hist. eccl., II, 25; Tillemont, VIII, Venice 1732, pp. 25, 27, 30, 38, 67; Hefele-Leclercq, I, pp. 653, 661, 665; L. Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'Église, II, 4th ed., Paris 1910, pp. 169-91; A. Fliche and P. Martin, Storia della Chiesa, Italian trans., III, Turin [1940], p. 109 ff.
Scaduto, Mario. “Arcaf, giovanni.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, coll. 1790–1791. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948. https://azioneromana.com/article/arcaf-giovanni.
MLA
Scaduto, Mario. “Arcaf, giovanni.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1948, coll. 1790–1791. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/arcaf-giovanni.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec1_arcaf_giovanni,
author = {Scaduto, Mario},
title = {Arcaf, giovanni},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {I},
pages = {1790--1791},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1948},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/arcaf-giovanni}
}
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