St. Athanasius: Defender of the Faith, Feast Day and Prayer

St. Athanasius (about 296–373), bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, spent his life defending the truth proclaimed at the Council of Nicaea, that Jesus Christ is true God, “consubstantial with the Father,” against the Arian heresy, which taught that the Son was a creature. He was driven into exile five times by four emperors and spent some seventeen years away from his diocese, so that his stand became proverbial: Athanasius contra mundum, “Athanasius against the world.” He wrote On the Incarnation, the Life of St. Antony, and the first list of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament exactly as we have them. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Eastern Church, and his feast day is May 2. Below are his story, his most famous words, and a prayer to St. Athanasius.

A short prayer to St. Athanasius, written for this page:

St. Athanasius, you stood for the truth about Jesus when almost everyone was against you.
Pray for the Church, that we may hold fast to the faith of the apostles,
and give me courage to profess that Jesus is truly God and truly man. Amen.

Who was St. Athanasius?

Athanasius was born around 296 in Alexandria, the great Christian and intellectual center of Egypt. As a young deacon and secretary to Bishop Alexander, he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325, which condemned the priest Arius for teaching that the Son of God was created, and wrote into the Creed that the Son is “one in being with the Father.” In 328 Athanasius succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria.

The Arian party, supported by several emperors, did not accept defeat. For nearly fifty years Athanasius was slandered, put on trial and sent into exile five times, to Trier in Gaul, to Rome, and to the desert, where the monks of Egypt, disciples of his friend St. Antony, hid and protected him. Each time he returned, he resumed teaching and writing. In his Easter letter of 367 he listed the books of the Bible, giving for the first time exactly the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. He died in Alexandria on May 2, 373. Pope St. Pius V declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1568.

“He was made man that we might be made God”

His treatise On the Incarnation of the Word explains why the Son of God became man (On the Incarnation 54.3):

For He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impossible and incorruptible and very Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all this, He maintained and preserved in His own impassibility.

The Gospel he defended (John 1:14, Douay-Rheims):

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The Athanasian Creed

The Quicumque vult, called the Athanasian Creed, is named after him because it expresses his faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation, but it was written in Latin a century or more after his death. See the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Feast day

The memorial of St. Athanasius, bishop and Doctor of the Church, is May 2, the day of his death.

Frequently asked questions

What is St. Athanasius known for?

Defending the divinity of Christ against Arianism, writing On the Incarnation and the Life of Antony, and listing the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.

What does “Athanasius against the world” mean?

That for years he seemed to stand almost alone, against emperors and many bishops, in defending the faith of Nicaea.

Did St. Athanasius write the Athanasian Creed?

No. It bears his name because it expresses his teaching, but it was composed later in the West.

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Texts and sources

Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 54.3, trans. A. Robertson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, vol. 4 (1892), public domain (Wikisource).
John 1:14 (Douay-Rheims).