Athanasius of Alexandria

Life events

1. Born — 296

   Athanasius was born to a Christian family in Alexandria, or possibly the nearby Nile Delta town of Damanhur, sometime between 293 and 298; Cornelius Clifford places the birth no earlier than 296, and the Orthodox Church places it around 297.

2. Educated

   Athanasius received a fine secular education in Alexandria, becoming fluent in both Greek and Coptic; Bishop Alexander of Alexandria took him on as commensal and secretary, exposing him to the catechetical school's theological debates and the neoplatonist milieu of the city.

3. Council — 325

   At approximately age 27, Athanasius attended the First Council of Nicaea as deacon and secretary to Bishop Alexander; he took a leading role against the Arian position that the Son was of a distinct substance from the Father, and the council adopted the term homoousios ('consubstantial') in the resulting Nicene Creed.

4. Consecrated — 328

   On 9 May 328, the Alexandrian Council elected Athanasius as the 20th Patriarch of Alexandria, succeeding Alexander; despite opposition from followers of Arius and Meletius of Lycopolis, his episcopate would ultimately span 45 years.

5. Exiled — 336

   Following condemnation at the Synod of Tyre in 335 — where Eusebius of Nicomedia's faction accused him of threatening Egypt's grain supply to Constantinople — Emperor Constantine I exiled Athanasius to Augusta Treverorum in Gaul (present-day Trier), where Bishop Maximin received him; he remained approximately two years until Constantine's death in 337.

6. Exiled — 356

   On the night of 8 February 356, armed soldiers broke into the Church of St. Thomas in Alexandria during services to arrest Athanasius; he withdrew into the desert of Upper Egypt for approximately six years, living among the monks and composing his Four Orations against the Arians, Apology to Constantius, and History of the Arians — in which he described Constantius II as a precursor of the Antichrist.

7. Wrote — 367

   In his 39th Festal Letter of 367, Athanasius listed the 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today — the earliest surviving list to enumerate them precisely — one of 45 such annual letters sent from Alexandria or exile to announce the Easter date and address doctrinal matters.

8. Died — 373

   On 2 May 373, Athanasius died peacefully in Alexandria surrounded by his clergy, having first consecrated the presbyter Peter II as his successor; his remains were later transferred to the Chiesa di San Zaccaria in Venice, though a relic was returned to Egypt by Pope Paul VI in 1973 and is now preserved under the new Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Athanasius spent over 17 years in five separate exiles ordered by four Roman emperors — Constantine I, Constantius II, Julian the Apostate, and Valens — earning the epithet Athanasius Contra Mundum, 'Athanasius Against the World'. (certain)
• His Life of Antony (Vita Antonii; Βίος καὶ Πολιτεία Πατρὸς Ἀντωνίου) became his most widely read work, translated into several languages; depicting Anthony as an illiterate desert hermit battling demonic powers, it became foundational to Christian monasticism in both East and West. (likely)
• Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter (367) is widely cited as the first document to identify the same 27 New Testament books in use today; Pope Damasus I promulgated an identical canon in 382, a Synod of Hippo repeated it in 393, and the Council of Carthage confirmed it in 397. (likely)
• Gregory of Nazianzus called Athanasius 'the true pillar of the Church' and declared 'virtue itself is my theme' when praising him; the Catholic Church names him one of the four Great Greek Doctors alongside Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. (certain)
• The so-called Athanasian Creed, widely used in Western liturgy, is today generally regarded as a 5th-century Galician composition and not the work of Athanasius himself, despite bearing his name since the early medieval period. (likely)