Faith in History / Sean Gallagher

St. Athanasius defended Christ’s divinity, wrote a biography of St. Anthony of Egypt

Eleven doctors of the Church were active in ministry in the fourth century, nearly 30% of the 38 people given that special title.

The fourth century was a critical time in Church history. Christianity became tolerated in the Roman Empire in a permanent way with the rise of the emperor Constantine and his Edict of Milan in 313.

The peace in the Church that came with the end of its persecution allowed many great theologians to build on the legacy of the Apostles and early Church leaders in the second and third centuries.

The fourth century was also a time of division in the Church, with much rancorous debate happening on teachings on Christ and the Trinity.

St. Athanasius, born in 298 in Alexandria, Egypt, played a crucial role in the first of these debates. As a young deacon, he was an assistant of Bishop Alexander of Alexandria at the Council of Nicaea in 325, the 1,700th anniversary of which the Church celebrated last year.

This council was the occasion for the Church to define the dogma that Jesus Christ is of the same nature (or “consubstantial” in the words of the Creed we profess at Mass) as God the Father. This definition came in response to the teaching of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, who argued that Christ was created by God and was neither of the same nature as him nor co-eternal with him.

While the bishops at Nicaea rejected Arius’ teaching, the council did not immediately end divisions in the Church. Tensions between followers of Arius—known as Arians—and those who accepted the teachings of the Church continued in various ways for around two centuries.

Succeeding Alexander as bishop of Alexandria in 328, Athanasius was a staunch defender of the teachings of Nicaea until his death in 373. Because the imperial government favored the Arians at different times, Athanasius ended up being exiled from his local Church several times.

In addition to writing profoundly on the divinity of Christ, Athanasius is also known for his biography of St. Anthony of Egypt, considered a primary founder of Christian monasticism.

This biography was, in a sense, a bestseller in the ancient world, with many manuscripts of it being found across the empire. St. Augustine of Hippo, in his spiritual autobiography Confessions, noted the biography’s great influence on him as a young adult and on other young men like him, leading them to dedicate themselves to a life of prayer and self-sacrifice.

St. Athanasius’ writing On the Incarnation is good for us to reflect on with the season of Christmas recently completed in which we celebrate God taking on human flesh in the babe of Bethlehem.

“The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. … Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. … Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body. He made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself.”

St. Athanasius was named a doctor of the Church in 1568. The Church celebrates his feast on May 2.

Within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, there is parish in Indianapolis dedicated to St. Athanasius, although it is an Eastern Catholic faith community that is part of the Byzantine Eparchy of Parma, Ohio.

St. Athanasius, pray for us!
 

(Sean Gallagher is a reporter and columnist for The Criterion.) †