Saturday, May 2

Golden Age · c. 296–373

Athanasius the Great

Patriarch of Alexandria, champion of Nicene faith

Athanasius attended the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 as a young deacon and secretary to his bishop, and in 328 succeeded to the see of Alexandria. For forty-five years he stood almost alone against the Arian heresy, which denied the full divinity of the Son of God, earning the phrase 'Athanasius against the world.' Five times he was driven into exile by hostile emperors, taking refuge among the monks of the Egyptian desert, whose life he made known to the world through his Life of Antony. His treatise On the Incarnation remains a classic exposition of why God became man, and his 39th festal letter contains a landmark listing of the canonical books of Scripture. He reposed in peace on May 2, 373, and is honored as a pillar of Orthodoxy and Father of the Church.

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