Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

c. 296–373 · 4th c. · 19 works

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria was bishop of Alexandria and the great fourth-century champion of Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism. Born in Alexandria toward the close of the third century, he was known from his youth to Patriarch Alexander, whom he served as deacon.

He attended the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 as Alexander's deacon, defending the teaching that the Son is consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father. On Alexander's death he succeeded him as bishop in 328 and led the Church of Alexandria for some forty-five years. His refusal to compromise with the Arian party brought repeated conflict with emperors and rival bishops: he was driven into exile five times, spending more than twenty years away from his see, at one point standing almost alone among the bishops of the East.

Among his works are the treatise On the Incarnation, the Orations Against the Arians, and the Life of Antony, whose Latin translation carried the ideals of Egyptian monasticism throughout the Christian West.

He reposed in Alexandria on 2 May 373. Venerated as a saint and numbered among the great teachers of the Church, he is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 2 May and again on 18 January, the joint feast he shares with Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

Sources: Orthodox Church in America — Life of St Athanasius the Great · Encyclopaedia Britannica — St. Athanasius