May 2: Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Defender of the Nicene Creed
A lone bishop against all, including the Emperor, in the defense of the Niceo-Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly called the Nicene Creed, fearlessly risking exile, marginalization, or persecution. He is Saint Athanasius, a staunch defender of the orthodoxy of the faith in the face of Arian heresy.
Born near Alexandria, Egypt, around 298, he studied Greek literature and philosophy. At a very young age he entered the Church’s service where for six years he was a lector. Ordained deacon, Patriarch Alexander appointed him his personal secretary.
Meanwhile, the presbyter Arius spread his doctrine which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, this doctrine was condemned and became known as the Arian Heresy. In his role as secretary to the Patriarch, Athanasius participated very actively in the Council.
Before his death in 328, the Patriarch Alexander, indicated Athanasius as his successor, who at only thirty years of age was thus elected the new Patriarch. In the autumn of 329, he set off for a long pastoral journey. In the monastery of Tabennisi, in the Thebaid region, he ordained the Abbot Pachomius as a priest. Soon the followers of Arius firmly opposed Athanasius, and accused him of mismanagement of the Patriarchate. In 335, in Tyre, now Lebanon, during a Synod convened by Arian bishops, Athanasius was accused of being an accomplice to violence against the Arian clergy, for which he was deposed by the Patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt. On February 5, 336, he was exiled by Emperor Constantine to Trier, where he remained from the spring of 336 to June 337.
In the autumn of 353, the Bishops of Gaul met in Arles, in the presence of the legates of Pope Liberius. Under pressure from the Emperor, the Council unjustly condemned Athanasius, but the Pope refused to confirm this act.
A new Council met in 355 in Milan, in the presence of Emperor Constantius II. Threatened with exile, most of the Bishops signed the decree of deposition of Athanasius, who exiled himself to the desert.
On the death of Constantius II, in 361, Emperor Julian, on February 9, 362, with an edict, authorized the return of all bishops banished by his predecessor. Athanasius returned to Alexandria on February 21 and began to try to reconcile the different factions of Christians. However, Julian, who did not want Athanasius to have so much influence over the people, wrote a public letter to the Alexandrians explaining that he had authorized the banished bishops to return to their city, but were not allowed to resume their functions. Athanasius was forced therefore to return to exile in Upper Egypt.
Julian died in 363 and was succeeded by Jovian. Athanasius went to Syria to meet him. The Arians tried in vain to convince the Emperor to depose him. After a stay in Antioch, he returned to Alexandria, where he resumed possession of the Patriarchate. After the death of Jovian, in 364, Valens was appointed co-emperor for the East. At the beginning of 365, an imperial edict banished the bishops deposed by Constantius II and recalled by Julian. Athanasius was forced to take refuge in a country house, until, due to serious political disorders, in 366, the emperor reinstated him on his metropolitan see. He died on May 2, 373, in Alexandria, Egypt.