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The saints

St. Athanasius

Athanasius against the world: five times exiled for saying Jesus is truly God.

Feast: 2 May · about 296 to 373 · The early Church · Alexandria, Egypt

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Icon of St. Athanasius, bald and white-bearded, in bishop’s vestments, holding a book.

Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

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Alexandria, Egypt, the 4th century

As a young deacon, Athanasius went with his bishop to the Council of Nicaea in 325.1

The council taught that the Son is one in being with the Father, against Arius.2

Soon after, Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria, and spent the rest of his life defending what Nicaea said.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church honors him as the great defender of the divinity of Christ.

01St. Athanasius

Five exiles

Emperors and bishops sided with the Arians, and he was exiled five times, once hiding with monks in the desert.2

People said it was Athanasius against the world.2

02St. Athanasius

The Life of Anthony

He wrote the Life of St. Anthony, which spread the monastic life across the Church.2

Live it this week

Say the Creed and mean it

Athanasius spent his life defending the words we say every Sunday. Pray the Nicene Creed slowly every day this week, and stop on one line each day to ask what it really means.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Athanasius”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Athanasius”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.