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.

On the Sacrament of Confirmation

The Sunday called Quinquagesima

O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

One of the five sacraments of the church most often practiced outside of the Catholic tradition is that of Confirmation. Throughout its history it has been strongly associated with the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and indeed it traces its origins to Holy Scripture. In Anglicanism, though not counted as one of the Sacraments of the Gospel, it is generally accepted and requires the administration of a Bishop, in contrast to some other traditions, such as the Roman Catholics, where under certain circumstances a priest may administer Confirmation.

It is a sacrament which requires its recipient to be both Baptised and not already Confirmed. As St Thomas Aquinas puts it in his Summa Theologica, “confirmation is to baptism what growth is to generation. Now it is clear that a man cannot advance to a perfect age unless he has first been born; in like manner, unless he has first been baptized he cannot receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.”

In discussing Holy Baptism previously, Acts 19 verses 1-5 were consulted, as they tell the story of Paul arriving in Ephesus and baptises the believers who had not heard of baptism by the Holy Spirit, and who had only been baptised into John’s baptism of repentance. In verse six, which wasn’t previously quoted, St Paul then lays hands on those who had been baptised and at that point, not in verse five when they are actually baptised, they receive the Holy Spirit:

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Earlier in the Acts of the Apostles, St Peter and St Paul had similarly prayed over Christians in Samaria in order that they receive the Holy Spirit:

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8. 14-17)

Confirmation has thus developed in a historical understanding as the process whereby baptised Christians receive the laying on of hands and are spiritually strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In this understanding, Baptism is the initial pouring out of the Spirit on an individual, the way in which they are reborn into new life, and Confirmation fills that Christian with the fullness of the Holy Spirit and is the gateway to the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit. Because of its depiction in the Acts of the Apostles, in the Christian East, confirmation has traditionally occurred immediately after Baptism, whereas in the West it has traditionally taken place at a different time, particularly in respect of Christians who are baptised as infants, and for whom confirmation is an opportunity to reaffirm their baptismal covenants on their own behalf.

In the early Church, baptism always occurred on the Easter Vigil, followed immediately by confirmation and then the first Eucharist for the newly baptised Christian. In this way, there was a single event with multiple sacraments involved that initiated catechumens into the full sacramental life of the Church.

In the West, a number of developments occurred which split confirmation and baptism from a single event into multiple events. After Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the number of catechumens increased significantly, as did the demand for Baptism and Confirmation. However, unlike in the East where populations tended remained relatively centralised in cities, in the West, many of these new Christians were in the countryside, and it became impossible for the bishop to visit all the locations where Baptisms were in demand. Over time, the practice developed whereby the local priest would administer Baptism, and Confirmation would be administered by the bishop on his next visit to the Parish. In the East, the problem was also resolved by delegating the entire procedure to priests. The bishop would bless the chrism, holy oil, used in the rites, but otherwise it was acceptable for the Priest to administer in order to maintain the traditional form of having Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist all administered as a single event.

In Anglicanism in particular, the importance of confirmation comes in the decision on the part of the candidate to receive the strengthening fullness of the Holy Spirit. Because the conventional practice for Baptism is infant baptism, the candidate themselves has no opportunity to make their baptismal covenants on their own behalf, and instead the covenants are made for them by their parents and godparents. Because of this norm, when a baptised Anglican is brought before their bishop to receive confirmation, it is an opportunity for them to also affirm of their own desires and volition, their baptismal covenant.

Among non-Catholics, confirmation has different understandings. It is generally not viewed through a sacramental lens, and thus when a protestant converts to a Catholic tradition, they may still be Confirmed, as whatever ‘confirmation rite’ they received, it was not sacramentally valid. Protestants generally view the rite as a mere rite of passage in which Christians, generally teens, are instructed extensively in the Christian faith, and not that there is a divine strengthening by the Holy Spirit. In some protestant denominations, particularly where infant baptism is not practiced, there is no confirmation rite and the protestant equivalents for instruction are merely incorporated into preparation for Baptism.

Again, this practice seems to ignore the Scriptural teaching on the distinction between Baptism and Confirmation, the sacramental reality of Confirmation and the necessity of authority for those administering the sacrament.

The Wisdom of Saints: St Nicholas of Myra

The Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 343

O ALMIGHTY God, who willest to be glorified in thy Saints, and didst raise up thy servant Nicholas to shine as a light in the world: Shine, we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praises, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvellous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The season of Advent is also one that is fraught, in the secular world, with images of the secular notion of Christmas: generosity and giving, and for the children, Santa Clause. While there is nothing wrong with promoting these virtues, setting aside the fact that they are in fact not the “reason for the season” or the fact that it is Advent and not Christmas itself, it is Santa Clause that will draw the attention of this month’s entry in the Wisdom of Saints, with a discussion of the life of St Nicholas of Myra, also known as St Nicholas the Wonder-worker, the inspiration for the mythical figure of Santa Clause.

A Christian friend recently discussed his distress at having to decide how to approach the issue of Santa Clause with his firstborn son. Do you say that Santa Clause—and other common children’s fantasies such as the tooth fairy—is real, only to have them realise later that it is not true or do you approach it another way. My suggestion at the time was simple: teach them about St Nicholas.

No direct writing of St Nicholas survives, and the oldest accounts of his life were made several hundred years after his death, so there are many varying accounts and traditions.

St Nicholas was born in 270 in the port city of Patara, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Asia Minor. His parents were wealthy Christians named Epiphanius and Johanna, and they raised Nicholas to be Christian before dying while Nicholas was still relatively young. He was a pious boy and upon the death of his parents devoted his inherited wealth to charity while he continued to serve the Church. His Uncle, who was Bishop of Patara, tonsured him as a reader and later ordained him as a Presbyter.

One early story of his life in Patara purports that shortly after the death of his parents he learned of a man in the city who had three daughters and no money to support them, or ability to find husbands for them due to the lack of a dowry. He planned to turn his daughters over to prostitution so they could support themselves. Hearing of this, St Nicholas brought a bag of gold and in secret during the night, threw it into the man’s house through an open window. The money was sufficient for the man to find a husband for his eldest daughter. St Nicholas later returned with another bag for the middle daughter and a third time for the youngest.

Around the year 300, St Nicholas travelled to Myra, where it happened that the Bishop of Myra had recently died and other local bishops had gathered to select the next bishop. One of the senior bishops present heard a voice during the night telling him that the first person who entered the church during matins the next morning was to be the next Bishop. The next morning, St Nicholas entered, and after asking his name, the bishop addressed him saying, “Nicholas, servant and friend of God, for your holiness you shall be bishop of this place.”

According St Methodios of Constantinople, writing in the 9th century on the life of St Nicholas, St Nicholas suffered under the Diocletian persecution of the early 4th century:

As he was the chief priest of the Christians of this town and preached the truths of faith with a holy liberty, the divine Nicholas was seized by the magistrates, tortured, then chained and thrown into prison with many other Christians. But when the great and religious Constatine, chosen by God assumed the imperial diadem of the Romans, the prisoners were released from their bonds and with them the illustrious Nicholas, who when he was set at liberty returned to Myra.

After being released from prison he returned to his position as Bishop of Myra, where he spoke out against the Arian controversy, preventing it from taking root within his see. As St Methodios put it, because of his orthodox teachings, the people of Myra rejected Arianism as, “death dealing poison.” St Nicholas attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325 called by Emperor Constantine to address the Arian controversy. He was well-regarded in his time as a tireless advocate against Arianism and against paganism as well.

After his release from prison following the Diocletian persecution, St Nicholas is said to have utterly destroyed the pagan temple to Artemis, the principle pagan deity worshipped in Myra, in Myra. He preached extensively against paganism throughout his days, and orthodox Christian faith.

Another of his most well-known miracles involves the freeing of three innocent men from prison. The local governor had taken a bribe in order to condemn and execute three innocent men, but St Nicholas arrived just in time to stay the hand of their executioner and had them released. Later when the three men were in Constantinople, they were captured by a prefect who again procured warrants for their death from the Emperor Constantine. Awaiting their execution the men prayed for intervention and deliverance, remembering St Nicholas’s intervention previously. That night, St Nicholas appeared to the prefect and to the Emperor in dreams, threatening them and telling them to release the three innocent men. The next morning, Constantine and the prefect conferred and found they had shared the same dream. The three innocent men were questioned and when it was found that had called on God in the name of St Nicholas, who had appeared to Constantine, they were set free and sent to Myra with a letter from Constantine to St Nicholas.

St Nicholas died and was buried in Myra in 343.

Over the centuries, St Nicholas became well-known for both his charity—leaving gold coins in the shoes of his guests—and for performing miracles. Due to one story related to him involving saving children, he became a patron saint for children, and in parts of Europe customs arose involving distributing gifts in his name at Christmas, though this custom did not extend to the English speaking world. It was brought to the Americas by Dutch protestants, where the name Saint Nicholas became corrupted through translation to Santa Clause, and was thus introduced to the English speaking world.

While Santa Clause himself is a fictional character, the spirit of charity represented in gift-giving is thoroughly rooted in the history of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.