St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria: biography, history and bibliography

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

St. Athanasius the Great (c. 295-373) was one of the prominent church figures who belonged to the Alexandrian school of patristics. At first he was the successor of Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria, replacing him in the chair. Athanasius the Great was known as the most outspoken opponent of Arianism. By 350 A. D. e. was practically the only bishop of the Roman Empire (more precisely, its eastern half) of a non-Arian persuasion, who was expelled and exiled several times. He is canonized and revered in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Churches.

Saint Athanasius the Great

Athanasius was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. As a boy, his mother brought him to the temple to Patriarch Alexander and gave him to serve God. He was a very capable and intelligent young man, zealously fulfilling the commandments of God.

In the year 319, after 6 years of his service as a reader in the church, the Patriarch blessed the young man as a deacon of the Church of Alexandria.

In 325 Athanasius the Great accompanied the saintAlexandra at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea as secretary. And there they were very active in violent heretical disputes about the nature of Christ. Arianism was condemned, Arius himself was expelled, the statement about the consubstantial Trinity sounded as a creed.

At the same time, Athanasius begins to write his first works. He did not see piety in those who came to the church of Christ, since many of them idle talk, idle talk, seek corruptible glory for themselves, bring their pagan customs and wrong beliefs into the Christian life.

Aryan

The conceited Arius spoke all sorts of blasphemy and derogatory words about Jesus and the Mother of God, believing that Christ is not equal to God. He also taught the people things unacceptable to the Church of Christ, thereby outraging the masses. The number of followers of this heresy increased, and therefore they were called Arians. The false teaching they spread has swept the entire Christian Church.

In 326, Patriarch Alexander died. Instead, Bishop Athanasius was elected. He took his work very seriously, spoke to the people a lot, denouncing the Arians and fighting their non-Christian creeds. The Arians, in turn, began to slander him.

Konstantin the Great

At that time, the Roman Empire was ruled by Constantine I the Great (306-337), who in 324 won a victory over the insidious attendant pagan Licinius. Constantine was considered the true patron of the Christian Church. He wanted Christianitybecome the state religion. This ruler was well versed in public affairs and was an excellent diplomat, but he did not particularly know the Gospel teachings, so it was difficult for him to decide where the truth was and where the lie was, and what was better to choose - Arianism or Orthodoxy? Taking advantage of this uncertainty in their views, heretics penetrated all positions and whispered all sorts of rumors and gossip to him, arranged conspiracies and splits.

Konstantin was a supporter of the consolidation of power, but began to receive mutual complaints from the supporters of Arius, then from the supporters of Athanasius. In Egypt, it took on a more violent form, with people starting to treble in street fights.

Bold lie

A whole war unfolded against Archbishop Athanasius, he was accused of being a criminal, a sorcerer and a fornicator who disobeys the ruler and commits illegal deeds.

Things once reached the point of absurdity when he was accused of doing all kinds of sorcery with the help of some severed dead hand that belonged to the cleric Arseny. Arseny was a reader, at that time he was hiding from the authorities for some of his misconduct, but when he heard that Athanasius the Great was slandered, he appeared before the court alive and unharmed. So the supporters of the Arians were convicted of lies.

But for them, this lie was not enough, and they added another one, bribing some shameless person who said that St. Athanasius wanted to abuse her. Afanasy's friend Timothy, listening to this heinous accusation behind the door, unexpectedly entered the courtroom and appeared before the woman, as if he were Athanasius, with the words: “Dearest,Forgive me for what I did to you this night violence. The false witness hysterically screamed that she would never forgive this intruder and corrupter of her purity. The judges, seeing the comedy played out, laughed and drove her away.

The saint was acquitted by the emperor and sent to the See of Alexandria.

Harassment and persecution

Emperor Constantine saw the depth of hostility, which could develop into a real religious war, and then he asked St. Athanasius to leave for a while.

Meanwhile, in 330, Arianism began to be supported by the state, Constantine called Eusebius of Nicomedia out of exile, and then Arius.

In 335, Athanasius condemned the Council of Tire. He was again falsely accused of involvement in the murder of the Meletian priest Arsenius and exiled to Trier. But after the death of Emperor Constantine in 337, he was returned to his homeland from his exile.

Emperor Constantius

The second son of Constantine Constantius became the Emperor. The entire imperial court stood up for the Arians, the persecution of Orthodox Christians began, the bishops were exiled, the thrones began to be occupied by wicked people. Athanasius the Great fled to Rome for three years.

In exile he met Saint Servatius, who became his reliable defender in disputes with the Arian heresy at the Sardic Council.

In the year 340 he is sent again. He returned to the Alexandrian see only in 345 after the death of Bishop Gregory. But in 356, the Milan Cathedral again condemns him, after which he flees to the upperEgypt and hides there until 361, until Emperor Constantius dies.

More than 20 years Athanasius the Great spent in exile, now hiding, then returning to his native places. At that time he was strongly supported by the fathers of monasticism, Saints Anthony and Pachomius. Later he will write a book about it.

Athanasius, being a bishop, did not recognize the equal existence of the orthodox and Arian branches of Christianity.

God's judgment

Over time, the Lord judged everything with his fair judgment: Arius and his heretic associates were punished, and the wicked king died. After that, Julian the Apostate came to replace him, Jovinian the Pious began to rule after him, after Valens, who, although in many ways harmed the Church, but being afraid of rebellion, allowed Athanasius to return to the Alexandrian See and rule it peacefully and calmly until the end of his days. Bishop Athanasius the Great reposed on May 2, 373 at the age of 76.

For 46 years he was Bishop of Alexandria, persecuted and slandered. But he always returned to preach the gospel truth about Christ the Savior.

Athanasius the Great: creations

The essence of his theology was that God became man in order for man to become God. Athanasius the Great spent his whole life defending the truth. "On the Incarnation of the Word" - his work, which became the central text of Christianity, describing without any excesses all the dogma about Christ.

Bishop Athanasius was the first to capture the experience of the Hermit Fathersin The Life of Anthony. The ascetic does what the philosopher simply talks about. He contrasts asceticism with the philosophy of Athanasius the Great. The Commentary on the Psalms has become a brilliant classic of patristic exegesis, allowing one to read the texts and correctly understand their true meaning and significance.