Saint Athanasius
Bishop and Doctor of the Church
- Feast Day
- May 2
- Life
- 296–373
- Doctor of the Church
- 1568
- Born
- Alexandria, Egypt
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373) was bishop of Alexandria for forty-five years and the principal defender of the Nicene faith against Arianism. As a young deacon he attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325 with his bishop Alexander, and he succeeded Alexander as Patriarch of Alexandria in 328.
Five times he was driven from his see by Arian emperors and bishops, spending more than seventeen years in exile in Trier, Rome, the Egyptian desert, and elsewhere. During these exiles he wrote the works that secured Trinitarian orthodoxy: the Orations Against the Arians, the De Decretis, and the De Synodis. His treatise On the Incarnation of the Word remains a foundational text of Christology, articulating the soteriological principle that what is not assumed is not redeemed.
Athanasius authored the Life of Antony, the prototype of Christian hagiography, which spread monastic ideals throughout the Roman world and was instrumental in the conversion of Saint Augustine. His Festal Letter of 367 transmits the earliest surviving list of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament canon. He died at Alexandria on May 2, 373.
Pope Saint Pius V declared Athanasius a Doctor of the Church in 1568, naming him with Saints Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom as the four great Eastern Doctors.
Athanasius is venerated as Athanasius Contra Mundum, Athanasius against the world, for his unflinching defense of the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father at a time when, as Saint Jerome wrote, the world groaned to find itself Arian. His insistence that only one who is true God can save humanity remains the bedrock of Catholic Christology.
Patronages
theologians · Orthodox Christians · Alexandria
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Athanasius
17 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Athanasius's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St Athanasius' Catholic Church — Carluke, SCT
- Saint Athanasius Chapel — San Jose, CA
- Saint Athanasius Roman Catholic Church — Evanston, IL
- Saint Athanasius Catholic Church — Rumford, ME
- Saint Athanasius Church — Harrison, MI
- Saint Athanasius Catholic Church — Jesup, IA
- Congregation of St. Athanasius [Anglican Use] — Lowell, MA
- St. Athanasius & St. Paul Church — Los Angeles, CA
- St. Athanasius — Hattersheim
- Filialkirche Heiliger Athanasius
- Saint Athanasius Catholic Church — Baltimore, MD
- Saint Athanasius Roman Catholic Church — Long Beach, CA
- St. Athanasius — Louisville, KY
- Saint Athanasius the Great [Ruthenian] — Indianapolis, IN
- Saint Athanasius Catholic Church — Mountain View, CA
- St. Athanasius — Philadelphia, PA
- The Congregation of Saint Athanasius - St. Lawrence — Chestnut Hill, MA
Sources