Who Is Saint Athanasius the Great?

He was born in Alexandria around 295. He became deeply learned in both secular and divine knowledge, and for a time he was a disciple of Saint Anthony the Great. Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, ordained him a reader in 312 and a deacon in 318.

In 325 the bishop took him to the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicaea against the Arian error. After the death of his bishop, Alexander, on April 17, 328, Athanasius was elected on June 8 of the same year to succeed him in the see of Alexandria. His time as bishop was a heroic struggle, in speech and in writing, for the true faith against the Arian error wherever it was found, among emperors, bishops or ordinary people; and it was also a Calvary of suffering that he climbed step by step, upheld by the love of Christ.

It was a period in which Athanasius embodied, in his person and his name, the true teaching on the divinity of the Word. The forces of error combined against him to crush him with their hatred, their false accusations and their influence over the emperors who went along with them.
He was exiled several times, until the total time he spent in exile came to seventeen years, six months and twenty days.

He departed to God on May 2, 373.