Nicene · c. 296 – 373
St. Athanasius
Alexandria, Egypt
Biography
Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 as a young deacon and became Bishop of Alexandria three years later, spending the rest of his life defending the Nicene definition of Christ's full divinity against Arianism. He was exiled from his see five times by hostile emperors, earning the phrase 'Athanasius contra mundum' (Athanasius against the world). His Life of St. Antony also spread knowledge of Egyptian monasticism throughout the Christian world.
Historical background
Amid the fourth-century Arian crisis, when even many bishops wavered, Athanasius stood almost alone in insisting on the Nicene homoousios ('of the same substance'), and his 39th Festal Letter of AD 367 gives the earliest surviving list matching exactly the 27 books of the New Testament canon.
Major writings
On the Incarnation
A classic exposition of why God the Word became man.
Life of St. Antony
The biography that spread monasticism across the Christian world.
39th Festal Letter
Lists the 27 books of the New Testament as canonical, the earliest such complete list.
Important teachings
Athanasius defends the full and equal divinity of the Son against Arius, arguing that only God can save and so the Savior must be truly God. He also gives crucial early witness to the settled canon of Scripture, recognized by the authority of the Church.
Quotations
“He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God.”
“These are the springs of salvation... let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these.”
“The judgment of the Roman Church... the whole Church would be bound by it.”