St. Athanasius the Apostolic

• St. Athanasius is the grandest figure of the early Church after the time of the apostles. He was raised up to complete their testimony to the eternal Logos, and to suffer like them; hence his title, “the Apostolic.”
• He was born in Upper (Southern) Egypt in about 297.
• According to Rufinus, Pope Alexander was impressed by the child Athanasius when he was acting out baptismal rites with other children on the shore at Alexandria.
• Pope Alexander ordained him a deacon at the age of 15 in 312, then a priest at the age of 21 in 318 and appointed him as his personal secretary.
• He lived through the period of severe persecution under Diocletian (303 - 311) and knew many of the martyrs and confessors in Alexandria. He learned from them the true meaning of fighting for the faith.
• During his youth, St. Athanasius spent time in the desert under the guidance of St. Anthony the Great. St. Athanasius regarded the monastic life as martyrdom and the monks the successors to the martyrs. He also looked upon monastic life as warfare against the enemy: “Living this life, let us be carefully on our guard

and, as is written, ‘with all watchfulness keep our heart’ (Prov. 4, 23). For we have enemies powerful and crafty – the wicked demons; and it is against these that our wrestling is.”

• He accompanied Pope Alexander to the Council of Nicaea in 325. His courage, zeal, logic, and wisdom earned him the admiration of the 318 bishops in attendance and the envy of the Arian heretics.
• He was chosen to succeed Pope Alexander on 8 June 328 becoming the 20th Pope of the See of St. Mark.
• St. Athanasius spent most of his life combating the heresy of Arius. Although Arius and his adherents were condemned and excommunicated at the Council of Nicaea, they continued unrelentlessly to cause trouble for St. Athanasius and the Church.
• The Arians saw St. Athanasius as their principal foe and worked tirelessly against him. Through intrigue, lies, conspiracy, and threats they gained a following with hierarchs and civil authorities in the East. Eventually, they persuaded the Emperor Constantine to send him into exile in Gaul in 335.
• With St. Athansius in exile, Arius thought he could receive communion in Alexandria; when his attempt failed, he went to Constantinople to meet the Emperor Constantine. Arius convinced him that he upheld the true faith of the Church, and the Emperor accepted his statement. Eusebius and those with Arius then escorted him to the church.
• Alexander, the bishop of Constantinople informed Arius he could not take part in communion since he was a heretic, but Arius said he had been invited by the Emperor and insisted that he would receive communion the next day. Alexander prayed fervently that he would not see such an atrocity and asked God that his life or Arius’ life be taken.

• That evening when Arius and his supporters were parading through the city, celebrating their victory, Arius suffered a violent hemorrhage of the bowels and died instantly.
• St. Athanasius’ exile in Gaul was the first of many; during his life, he was exiled on five separate occasions for a total of 17 years: - Under Constantine (335 - 337) to Treves in Gaul. - Under Constantius (339 - 346) visited Rome. - Under Constantius (356 - 362) in the Egyptian desert. - Under Julian (362 - 363) in the Egyptian desert; and - Under Valens (365 - 366) in the Egyptian desert.
• It seemed that St. Athanasius was the only leader who stood against the Arians, hence the Latin phrase “Athanasius contra mundum” - “Athanasius against the world”; it was his great encomium and the epitome of his glorious life and warfare.
• St. Athanasius’ courageous battle against the Arian heresy saved the Church from disaster.
• For his life-long defense of the truth, St. Athanasius is called the “Father of Orthodoxy.”
• He ordained Frumentius (Abbot Salama) as the first bishop of Ethiopia in 330.
• St. Athanasius spent the last seven years of his life in Alexandria; he died on 15 May, 373.
• He presided over the Church for 46 years.
• St. Gregory of Nazianzus, who was a contemporary of St. Athansius said of him: In praising Athanasius, I shall be praising virtue. To speak of him and to praise virtue are identical, because he had, or, to speak more truly, has

embraced virtue in its entirety…He was sublime in action, lowly in mind; inaccessible in virtue, most accessible in intercourse; gentle, free from anger, sympathetic, sweet in words, sweeter in disposition; angelic in appearance, more angelic in mind; calm in rebuke, persuasive in praise, without spoiling the good effect of either by excess, but rebuking with the tenderness of a father, praising with the dignity of a ruler, his tenderness was not dissipated, nor his severity sour…In some cases eager to prevent a fall, in others devising means of recovery after a fall; simple in disposition…clever in argument, more clever still in mind…His disposition sufficed for the training of his spiritual children, with very little need of words. The honors at his departure surpassed even those of his return from exile; the object of many tears, his glory stored up in the minds of all, outshines all its visible tokens.

• This oration On the Great Athanasius was probably delivered in 380.

• It is astonishing that despite such privations and amidst all his activities he found time for a number of literary productions. An eighth century monk wrote: “If you find a book by Athanasius and have no paper on which to copy it, write it on your shirts.” 1. Dogmatic
• On the Incarnation (De Incarnatione Verbi Dei): Written in 318 when St. Athanasius was just 21 years of age, it is one of the most accurate and comprehensive works ever written on the doctrine of the Incarnation to date.
• In On the Incarnation, he wrote: In speaking of the appearance of the Savior amongst us, we must speak also of the origin of men, that you may know that the reason of His coming down was because of us, and that our transgression called forth the loving- kindness of the Word, that the Lord should both make haste to help us and appear among men. For of His becoming incarnate we were the object, and for our salvation He dealt so lovingly as to appear and be born even in a human body. Thus, then, God has made man, and willed that he should abide in incorruption; but men, having despised and rejected the contemplation of God, and devised and contrived evil for themselves, received

the condemnation of death…For this purpose then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes to our realm…He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and, unable to bear that death should have mastery He takes unto himself a body, and that of no different sort from ours…And thus taking from our bodies one of like nature, because all were under the penalty of corruption of death He gave it over to death in the stead of all, and offered it to the father - doing this, moreover of His loving-kindness. 2. Apologetic

• Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes): an apology for the Christian faith and a refutation of paganism.
• Statement of Faith(Expositio Fidei)
• Apology Against the Arians (Apologia contra Arianos): Considered the most authentic source of the history of the Church in the first half of the 4th century. St. Athanasius is far superior to any other historians of the period for his personal testimony to the facts, and for his great accuracy and use of actual documents.
• Apology to Constantius (Apologia ad Constantium)
• Defence of the Nicene Council and of His Flight (de Decretis)
• Defense of His Flight (Apologia de Fuga: Written ca. 357 in response to the charge of cowardice circulated against him by the Arians.
• History of the Arians (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos)
• Four Discourses Against the Arians. In Discourse I, St. Athanasius wrote of Arius and the Arian heresy: The mockeries which he utters…repulsive and unreligious, are such as these: ’God was not always a Father;’ but ‘once God was alone, and not yet a Father, but afterwards He became a Father.’ ‘The Son was not always;’ for whereas all things were made out of nothing, and all existing creatures and works were made,

so the Word of God Himself was ‘made out of nothing,’ and ‘once He was not,’ and ‘He was not before His origination,’ but He as others ‘had an origin of creation.’ ‘For God,’ he says, was alone, and the Word as yet was not, nor the Wisdom…Moreover he has dared to say, that ‘the Word is not the very God; ‘though He is called God, yet He is not very God,’ but ‘by participation of grace, He, as others, is God only in name…With such words has the unreligious spoken; maintaining that the Son is distinct by Himself, and in no respect partaker of the Father…Shall not all humankind at Arius’ blasphemies be struck speechless, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, to escape hearing them or seeing their author?…For behold, we take divine Scripture and set it up as a light upon its candlestick, saying: - Very Son of the Father, natural and genuine, proper to His essence, Wisdom Only-begotten, and Very and Only Word of God is He; not a creature or work, but an offspring proper to the Father’s essence. Wherefore, He is very God, existing one in essence with the very Father …For He is the expression of the Father’s Person, and Light from Light, and Power, and very Image of the Father’s essence…And He ever was and is, and never was not. For the Father being everlasting, His Word and Wisdom must be everlasting. 3. Ascetic

• The Life of Anthony (vita Antoni).
• A number of Treatises on Virginity etc. The pseudo-Athanasius Life of Syncletica.
• Fragments of other treatises on virginity in Coptic, Syrian and Armenian translations.
• Sermons. 4. Exegetical
• On the interpretation of the Psalms.
• Commentary on Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs,

Genesis, and St. Luke. 5. Letters

• Festal or Easter (Christian Paschal) letters. In Letter V for Easter of 333, St. Athanasius wrote: “Again the time has arrived which brings to us a new beginning, even the announcement of the blessed Passover, in which the Lord was sacrificed. We eat, as it were, the food of life, and constantly thirsting we delight our souls at all times, as from a fountain, in His precious blood…He stands ready for those who thirst; and for those who thirst there is the word of our Savior, ‘If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink.’ ” (Jn 7:37).
• Four letters to Serapion.
• Doctrinal letters on the “Teaching of Dionysius,” on the decrees of Nicaea, and several others dealing with the Incarnation.
• Official Episcopal letters.
• Personal letters.
• In his Letter to Adelphius, St. Athanasius wrote: “We do not worship a creature…But we worship the Lord of creation, Incarnate, the Word of God. For if the flesh also is in itself a part of the created world, yet it has become God’s body.”