Athanasius,
known as “the Champion of Orthodoxy,” was born in Alexandria in
approximately 297. Nothing is known of his family except that his
parents were Christians and that he had a brother, Peter.
From
his youth he was close to the hermits of the desert, specially the great
St. Anthony whose life he wrote. He was highly educated in Greek,
literature, philosophy and rhetoric, jurisprudence and Christian
doctrine, and had an exceptional knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
Around 318, he was received into the diaconate and was appointed
secretary to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria.
About the year 323, a
presbyter of Libyan origins by name Arius, scandalized Christianity by
teaching that Christ, although a superlative human, was not divine.
Bishop Alexander called a council of Egyptian bishops who condemned the
doctrine as heresy, and deposed Arius and eleven priests and deacons.
The heresiarch continued to win over prelates and “intellectuals”,
disseminating his doctrine in songs set to popular tunes, which chanted
in marketplaces and by sailors, spread like wildfire throughout the
Mediterranean.
Athanasius was present at the First Council of
Nicaea in 325 which formerly defined the heresy and set forth the true
doctrine of the divinity of Christ, excommunicated Arius and promulgated
the Nicene Creed.
At the death of Bishop Alexander, shortly
after the council, Athanasius was nominated his successor though not yet
thirty years of age.
In 330, the Arian Bishop Eusebius of
Nicomedia persuaded the Emperor Constantine to write to Athanasius
bidding him re-admit Arius into communion. Athanasius replied that the
Catholic Church could hold no communion with heretics who attacked the
divinity of Christ. He was to lead the struggle against Arianism for the
rest of his life.
The
embattled bishop was accused of everything from exacting a tax on
church linen to killing a dissenting bishop (very much alive in hiding).
After these accusations, his life was plagued with harassment,
banishments, the need to defend himself before councils with periods of
reprieve depending on which emperor reigned. At one point his diocese
was even usurped by an Arian bishop. Five times he was driven from his
post, spending a total of seventeen years as a bishop in exile. When
banished, Athanasius followed the example of his friend St. Anthony and
retired to the desert.
Finally, Emperor Valens, fearing an
uprising of the Egyptians who loved their prelate, revoked a fifth edict
of banishment, and Athanasius was escorted back to his see in triumph.
He
reigned undisturbed for the last seven years of his life, dying in
Alexandria on May 2, 373. His body was later translated first to
Constantinople and then to Venice.
Sunday, May 2, 2021
St. Athanasius of Alexandria
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