St Athanasius the Great
Ἅγιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Μέγας
Five times exiled under four emperors for the Nicene faith, the archetype of the bishop who preferred the world's enmity to communion with error: “Athanasius against the world.”
- Feast day
- 18 January & 2 May
- Century
- 4th c.
- Region
- Alexandria
- Rank
- Patriarch of Alexandria
Biography
Born in Alexandria c. 296 to 298, Athanasius attended Nicaea (325) as a deacon and succeeded Alexander as archbishop in 328. For the next forty-five years he was the living standard of the Nicene confession: deposed and restored repeatedly by imperial and conciliar intrigue, he spent seventeen of those years in five exiles, at Trier, at Rome, hidden among the monks of the Egyptian desert, and twice a fugitive again.
From the desert he governed and wrote: the Orations against the Arians, the History of the Arians, the Life of St Anthony that carried monasticism to the world, and the festal letter of 367 that lists the canon of Scripture. He died in his see in 373, having outlasted the empire's Arianism.
The controversy
- Arianism in its imperial phase: not merely a heresiarch preaching, but councils, courts and emperors enforcing communion with error, the situation in which most sees conformed and the faith was preserved by the exiled and the laity.
Position taken
- No communion with the Arians, whatever the cost in sees, synods and imperial favour; the faith of Nicaea is not negotiable because it is not his to negotiate.
- Through the Life of St Anthony he transmitted the elder's charge as a rule for the faithful: have no fellowship with the schismatics, and do not defile yourselves with the Arians.
Quotations
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…μόνον μὴ μιάνητε ἑαυτοὺς μετὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν. Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὕτη ἡ διδασκαλία, ἀλλὰ τῶν δαιμόνων.…Only do not defile yourselves with the Arians. For this teaching is not of the Apostles, but of the demons.
to refuse to deny the Faith is also an illustrious testimony of a good conscience.
An excerpt from the closing exhortation to defend the Nicene confession during the Arian controversy.
Read the cited text · Wording checked 2026-09-10
Related councils
Related figures
Bibliography
- Migne, Patrologia Graeca 25 to 28.
- NPNF 2nd series, vol. 4 (Athanasius: Select Works and Letters).
- T. D. Barnes, Athanasius and Constantius (1993).