Saint Athanasius the Great (c. 295-373) was one of the prominent church figures belonging to the Alexandrian School of Patristics. At first he was the successor of the Patriarch of Alexandria Alexander, replacing him in the department. Athanasius the Great was known as the most vivid opponent of Arianism. By 350 BC e. was practically the only bishop of the Roman Empire (more precisely, its eastern half) of the non-Arian sense, who was expelled and exiled several times. He is ranked among the saints and is venerated in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Churches.
Saint Athanasius the Great
Athanasius was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. As a boy, his mother brought him to the church to Patriarch Alexander and gave him to serve God. He was a very capable and intelligent young man, zealously fulfilling the commandments of God.
In 319, after 6 years of his ministry in the church as a reader, the Patriarch blessed the young man as deacon of the Church of Alexandria.
In 325 Athanasius the Great accompanied Saint Alexander at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea as secretary. And there they were very actively involved in tough heretical debates about the nature of Christ. Arianism was condemned, Arius himself was expelled, a statement about the consubstantial Trinity sounded as a symbol of faith.
At the same time, Athanasius begins to write his first works. He did not see piety in those who came to the church of Christ, since many of them were idle talk, idle talk, sought corruptible glory for themselves, brought their pagan customs and wrong belief into the Christian life.
Arius
The vain Arius spoke all kinds of blasphemy and derogatory words about Jesus and the Mother of God, believing that Christ is not equal to God. He also taught the people things unacceptable to the Church of Christ, thereby outraging the masses. The number of followers of this heresy increased, and therefore they began to call them Arians. The false doctrine they are spreading has swept the whole Christian Church.
In 326, Patriarch Alexander died. Instead, Bishop Athanasius was elected. He took his business very seriously, spoke a lot to the people, denouncing the Arians and fighting their non-Christian creeds. The Arians, in turn, began to slander him.
Constantine the Great
At that time, the Roman Empire was ruled by Constantine I the Great (306-337), who defeated the insidious pagan pagan Licinius in 324. Constantine was considered the true patron of the Christian Church. He wanted to turn Christianity into a state religion. This ruler was well versed in public affairs and was an excellent diplomat, but he didn’t know the Gospel teachings, so it was difficult for him to decide where is the truth and where is the lie, and what is better to choose - Arianism or Orthodoxy? Taking advantage of this uncertainty in their views, heretics infiltrated all posts and whispered all sorts of rumors and gossip to him, arranged conspiracies and schisms.
Konstantin was a supporter of the consolidation of power, but began to receive mutual complaints either from the supporters of Aria, or from supporters of Athanasius. In Egypt, it took on more violent forms, people began to triple skirmishes in the streets.
Blatant lie
A whole war broke out against Archbishop Athanasius, they began to accuse him of being a criminal, a sorcerer and a fornication who does not obey the ruler and commits illegal affairs.
The matter once reached the point of absurdity when he was accused of using any kind of severed dead hand belonging to the cleric Arseny to do all sorts of sorcery. Arseny was a reader, while for some misconduct he was hiding from the authorities, but when he heard that Athanasius the Great was slandered, he appeared before the court alive and unharmed. Thus, the supporters of the Arians were convicted of lies.
But for them this lie was not enough, and they added one more, bribing a certain shameless person who stated that Saint Athanasius wanted to abuse her. Friend Athanasius Timothy, listening to this vile accusation at the door, suddenly entered the courtroom and appeared before the woman, as if he were Athanasius, with the words: “My dear, forgive me for having committed violence against you this night.” The false witness hysterically screamed that she would never forgive this intruder and the molester of her purity. The judges, seeing the comedy played out, laughed and drove it away.
The saint was acquitted by the emperor and sent to the Alexandria pulpit.
Harassment and persecution
Emperor Constantine saw the whole depth of hostility that could develop into a real religious war, and then he asked St. Athanasius to leave for a while.
Meanwhile, in 330 Arianism began to be supported by the state, Constantine called from exile Eusebius of Nicomedia, and then Aria.
In 335, Athanasius condemned Tyr Cathedral. He was again falsely accused of involvement in the murder of the Meletian priest Arseny and exiled to Trier. But after the death of Emperor Constantine in 337, he was returned to his homeland from his exile.
Emperor Constantius
The second son of Constantine Constantius became the emperor. The entire imperial court stood up for the Arians, the persecution of Orthodox Christians began, the bishops were exiled, the unholy people began to occupy the thrones. Athanasius the Great fled to Rome for three years.
In exile, he met with Saint Servatius, who became his reliable defender in disputes with the Arian heresy at the Sardinian cathedral.
In 340, he was again deported. He returned to the Alexandria chair only in 345 after the death of Bishop Gregory. But in 356, he was again condemned by the Cathedral of Milan, after which he fled to upper Egypt and hid there until 361, until Emperor Constantius dies.
Athanasius the Great spent more than 20 years in exile, now hiding, then returning to his native places. At that time he was strongly supported by the monastic fathers, the Monks Anthony and Pachomius. He will write a book about this later.
Athanasius, being a bishop, did not recognize the equal existence of the Orthodox and Arian branches of Christianity.
God's judgment
Over time, the Lord judged everything with his fair trial: Arius and the heretic associates were punished, and the wicked king died. After him, Julian the Apostate came to replace him, Jovinian the Pious began to rule, after Valens, who, although he did much harm to the Church but was frightened by the rebellion, allowed Athanasius to return to the Alexandrian pulpit and manage it peacefully and calmly until the end of his days. Bishop Athanasius the Great rested on May 2, 373 at the age of 76.
For 46 years he was a bishop of Alexandria, persecuted and slandered. But he always returned to preach the gospel truth of Christ the Savior.
Athanasius the Great: creations
The essence of his theology was that God became man in order for man to become God. Athanasius the Great spent his whole life defending the truth. “On the Incarnation of the Word” is his work, which has become the central text of Christianity, describing without any excesses the whole creed of Christ.
Bishop Athanasius was the first to capture the experience of the fathers of the hermits in the book “The Life of Anthony”. The ascetic does what the philosopher is simply talking about. Asceticism, he contrasts the philosophy of Athanasius the Great. “Interpretation of the Psalms” has become a brilliant classic work of patristic exegetics, which allows you to read texts and correctly understand their true meaning and meaning.