What are the views of Athenagoras (second century) on participating in military service?

The answer

Athenagoras, a dean of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, says that a Christian cannot bear to see any person killed, even justly.⁹²⁴ In his defense of Christians, which he addressed to the Emperor and his son, he writes, “For who are more deserving to obtain the things they ask, than those who, like us, pray for your government, that you may, as is most equitable, receive the kingdom, son from father, and that your empire may receive increase and addition, all men becoming subject to your sway? And this is also for our advantage, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life, and may ourselves readily perform all that is commanded us.”⁹²⁵

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty