Wisdom of the Saints: St Athanasius of Alexandria

Feast of Athanasius, Doctor, Bishop of Alexandria, 373

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Athanasius, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Athanasius is another of the Doctor's of the Church who lived in an age of significant schism within the Church, but who lived out his calling to teach right doctrine and rebuke heresy. He is sometimes regarded as the “Father of Orthodoxy” and is viewed as a great champion of orthodox Nicene Christianity during an age when heresy threatened to split the Church in half.

St Athanasius was born into a pagan family in 298. Not much is known of his family, but based on his writings, it would appear St Athanasius came from a moderately wealthy family that enabled him to have a traditional Greek education.

The historian Rufinus records in his Historia Ecclesiastica that one day Athanasius found some young Christians re-enacting the liturgy of Baptism on the beach. He joined in, ultimately playing the part of the bishop. The Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope St Alexander of Alexandria, was hosting a meeting of bishops nearby and witnessed the event. He called the boys to him to inquire about what they were doing, and ultimately decided to validate the baptisms. He further predicted that Athanasius would one day hold great position within the Church, and determined to encourage all of the boys into clerical vocations.

The truthfulness of that account has been debated through the ages, but what is known is that shortly after embarking on his ecclesiastical career, Poke Alexander invited the well-educated Athanasius to be his secretary. Many around him seemed impressed with his intelligence, ability and faith. Around the age of 20 and while he was still a deacon, he wrote his first treatise entitled On the Incarnation, exploring the dual nature of Christ as both God and man. His treatise concludes with these thoughtful words that the reader should test his arguments against Scripture:

This will give you a beginning, and you must go on to prove its truth by the study of the Scriptures. They were written and inspired by God; and we, who have learned from inspired teachers who read the Scriptures and became martyrs for the Godhead of Christ, make further contribution to your eagerness to learn… But for the searching and right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp, so far as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word. One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life. [9: 56, 57]

His early writings show fidelity to the patristic principles of prima scriptura, Christian orthodoxy and prescience that would become all too clear shortly after the treatise was first published.

Around 319, an Alexandrian presbyter named Arius began teaching that God the Son was not eternal, and the Son was part of the created order. Pope Alexander condemned Arius’s teachings as anti-Trinitarian, but Arius persisted in his teachings. He lent his name to the doctrine, known as Arianism, which was supported and developed by many other theologians from around the Christian world. He was condemned as a heretic by a council of Alexandrian bishops in 321 and excommunicated from the Church. He fled to Palestine and then Bithynia, and earned the protection and support of Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia who supported these teachings. Despite his excommunication from Alexandria, Arius and his teachings grew in prominence.

In 325, the controversy between Trinitarian Christians and Arians was becoming so great that the Emperor Constantine called for a Council of all Christian bishops to be held at Nicaea to resolve the matter once and for all. Pope St Alexander led the anti-Arians, with his deacon and secretary Athanasius at his side. After great debate, the Trinitarian Christians, who would then become known as Nicene Christians, were victorious, and Arianism was declared anathema and heresy throughout Christendom. Despite this, however, the controversy would not be laid to rest.

Shortly after the Council, Pope St Alexander died, and Athanasius was declared his successor. As Patriarch of Alexandria, St Athanasius would be a continued staunch foe of Arian heresy and defender of Nicene orthodoxy. After being appointed as Bishop while still quite young, he would ultimately serve for the next 46 years, though of those some 16 were spent in exile due to the rising influence of Arianism, particularly among some of the Imperial family. During his periodic exiles, he would spend most of his time among the Desert Fathers and also in writing some of his many prolific works.

St Athanasius was exiled so many times by so many different Emperors due to his absolute and unwavering commitment to Christian orthodoxy. Some of the lasting works of his writings include his Statement of Faith, probably written around the time of accession to the Episcopate, in which he writes:

We believe in one Unbegotten God, Father Almighty, maker of all things both visible and invisible, that hath His being from Himself. And in one Only-begotten Word, Wisdom, Son, begotten of the Father without beginning and eternally; word not pronounced nor mental, nor an effluence of the Perfect, nor a dividing of the impassible Essence, nor an issue; but absolutely perfect Son, living and powerful, the true Image of the Father, equal in honour and glory. For this, he says, ‘is the will of the Father, that as they honour the Father, so they may honour the Son also’: very God of very God, as John says in his general Epistles, ‘And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God and everlasting life’: Almighty of Almighty…  He is then by nature an Offspring, perfect from the Perfect, begotten before all the hills, that is before every rational and intelligent essence, as Paul also in another place calls Him ‘first-born of all creation’. But by calling Him First-born, He shews that He is not a Creature, but Offspring of the Father. For it would be inconsistent with His deity for Him to be called a creature. For all things were created by the Father through the Son, but the Son alone was eternally begotten from the Father, whence God the Word is ‘first-born of all creation,’ unchangeable from unchangeable… The Father, possessing His existence from Himself, begat the Son, as we said, and did not create Him, as a river from a well and as a branch from a root, and as brightness from a light, things which nature knows to be indivisible; through whom to the Father be glory and power and greatness before all ages, and unto all the ages of the ages. Amen.

The Athanasian Creed remains one of the three traditional creeds of the Anglican Church, though now modern Scholars recognize that it was likely not written by St Athanasius himself, but rather attributed to him by virtue of his own reputation as such a staunch defender of Christian Orthodoxy. The creed is available in the Book of Common Prayer, where it is permitted to be used instead of the Apostle’s Creed as a confession of the Christian faith.