Saint Athanasius

St. Athanasius

"Even before the Word became man, he was worshipped by angels."

He was exiled five times, he was slandered and hated by false council, Constantine and his successors considered him a trouble maker; yet, he prevailed and had faith in Christ with two complete natures, one divine and one human. A Doctor of the Church, the Father of Orthodoxy; St. Athanasius, pray for us!

The Arian Heresy is a falsehood believed by some early Christians. The Arians contradicted Jesus’ divinity saying that He had not always existed, but was just created by God at his birth. However, we know that Jesus and God are one and the same and that Jesus has always existed and still exists today as the continual Sacrifice. A young deacon named Arian began publicly preaching the Arian Heresy in 321 B.C. gathering many followers. Educated people were especially drawn to Arian’s teaching because they wanted an understandable explanation for everything and were intolerant of the mysteries in Christ’s teachings.

Athanasius was a young boy when he could not help but notice the many martyrs of that time and the Christian faith that is worth dying for. While he was growing up, he went to work for St. Antony who taught him Christianity and had him baptized. When Athanasius grew up he became a priest and helped the Catholic bishops defend Christ’s divinity against the Arian Heresy.

Soon the bishops met in Turkey at the Council of Nicea. There, with Athanasius’ help they wrote the Nicene Creed with which we profess our faith; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11049a.htm

It had appeared that Athanasius and orthodoxy (the original and true teachings of the Church) had triumphed. But, the Arians would not give up so easily.

Led by a man named Eusebius, the Arians plotted against Athanasius who was now Bishop of Alexandria. It was not the only time Athanasius would by tried for outrageous crimes or ridiculed, exiled and hated for his faith, or really, his persistence of keeping true to the one and only faith. They blamed poor Athanasius for the murder of a man named Arenius and they put him on trial; an unfair trial where the majority of the jury was made up of Arians. In the courtroom the bishop smiled at his accusers and asked them if they knew Arsenius. Many of them claimed they were good acquaintances of Arsenius. Athanasius calmly and slyly pointed to the back of the room, where sure enough Arsenius sat withdrawing the hood that had covered his face.

After that particular failure, Eusebius took a more drastic approach. He went to the emperor, Constantine, who was aging and sick and not fully rational. Eusebius convinced Constantine that Athanasius was behind many made-up political crimes and the innocent bishop was exiled to Trier, Germany. But, Athanasius kept in touch with the faithful in Egypt encouraging them to stay faithful to Christ’s teaching despite persecution.

When Constantine died, his son, Constantius, killed his two brothers and became emperor of Rome. He was a supporter of Arianism. During his reign, Athanasius and the other orthodox bishops and priest were forced into hiding. For six long years Athanasius stayed in hiding and was alone again. During that time the Arians were in political control but, thanks to Athanasius’ writings, they could not control the people. With excessive greed for power, the Arians began to crumble on their own. When Emperor Constantius died of fever, his cousin, Julian came to the throne. But, he hated all the Christians; Arian and orthodox alike. He wanted to restore paganism. Julian attempted to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to try to prove Christianity wrong. However, Christ’s prophecy that no stone shall remain upon the other remained true. Strange and mysterious happenings such as lighting in clear sky and visions the workers did not finish the project. Julian attempted to remove Christianity many more times after that but failed. Finally as he lay dying Julian, referring to Jesus, said, “Pale Galilean, you have conquered.”

Arianism began to fall on its own and was soon forgotten, Athanasius was able to safely come out of hiding, seeing the Church strong and united once more, and was to live seven more years. On May 2, 373 Athanasius died and was welcomed in the arms of Jesus whose divinity he had so successfully defended.

Written for you by BooBaby