Saint Athanasius

Athanasius was born around 296 in Alexandria, Egypt. As a young deacon he accompanied his bishop, Alexander, to the Council of Nicaea in 325, which declared that the Son is "consubstantial with the Father" against Arius, who taught that Christ was a creature. In 328 Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria and spent the rest of his life defending that faith.

Emperors and Arian bishops drove him from his see five times; in all he spent about seventeen years in exile, sometimes hiding among the monks of the Egyptian desert. His works include On the Incarnation and the Life of Antony, which spread the ideal of monastic life throughout the Christian world. Athanasius died in Alexandria on May 2, 373, having lived to see the faith of Nicaea prevail. He is honored as a Doctor of the Church in the West and as a great Father in the East.

Athanasius is one of the four great Doctors of the Eastern Church honored in the West, and his feast is kept by Catholics and Orthodox alike. Many priests and seminarians read passages from On the Incarnation on this day.

The Athanasian Creed, an ancient Latin creed long attributed to him, was once prayed on Trinity Sunday in the Divine Office.