Memorial of St. Athanasius

Athanasius was born of a Christian, Egyptian family, around the year 297. It seems that when he was 17 years old he heard about St. Anthony the Great in the deserts of Egypt and went to live with him for a while. Later he returned to Alexandria to be ordained a deacon in 319. He soon gained a widespread reputation for the excellence of his preaching and teaching. The bishop of Alexandria requested his help to battle the heresy of Arianism. Athanasius used his influence, in both word and writing, to defend the divinity of Christ against Arius.  In 325, in his late twenties, he assisted his Bishop at the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Church, where the divinity of Christ and a norm for orthodoxy, the Nicene Creed, was proclaimed.  His struggle with the heresy preached by the Alexandrian priest, Arius, was lifelong.

In 326 his bishop died and Athanasius was chosen to be his successor in 328. The Emperor Constantine, supporting Arianism, decided to exile Athanasius to northern Gaul. This was the first in a series of five exiles because of his defense of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. He lived with an almost constant threat of death.  His refusal to tolerate the Arian heresy was the cause of many trials and persecutions. Altogether he spent 17 years in exile, suffering extreme hardships. During one period of his life, he enjoyed 10 years of relative peace—reading, writing and promoting the Christian life along the lines of the monastic ideal to which he was greatly devoted. He served as bishop of Alexandria for 45 years. We monks remember him especially for his biography of the Life of St. Anthony. This champion of the Catholic Faith died in peace on May 2, 373. He is honored today as one of the greatest Doctors of the Church

Here is a quotation from the teaching of St. Athanasius that we do well to remember. He said, “You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his [lack of] progress.”