Today May 2

Today is the feast of St. Athanasius. Now, I love him because I once attended a church the altar stone of which contained one of his relics. And I've never even been to Alexandria in Egypt! But somehow one of his first-class relics made it to our little parish church. St. Athanasius was born in 295 AD in Alexandria, became a deacon and followed his bishop (Alexander) to the Council of Nicaea in 325. He succeeded him to the bishopric and defended the Nicene doctrine all his life at great personal cost. He was exiled 5 times. He finally regained his seat in 366 and lived in peace until his death in 373.

He lived and died a foe of Arianism, which held that Christ was not divine but created by the Father to fulfill the divine plan. Athanasius prevailed at Nicaea to define Christ's nature as homoousios (instead of the similar word "homoiousios", "of like substance") "of the same substance." That little letter "i" made all the difference. Arianism, though condemned (at the Council AND at a previous synod), continued to grow and gain favor, leading to Athanasius' numerous exiles and sufferings. They were defeated for good and all at the Council of Constantinople in 381, although the heresy resuscitated among the Arian Vandals and the Goths. Conversion of the pagan Franks to orthodox Catholicism coincided with their final death knell in the 6th century. But for a long time it threatened to take over Christianity at the world.

Athanasius had to be clever as a snake while innocent as a dove while running form his Arian persecutors. Once, he was being pursued downriver by enemies who didn't know him by sight. "Have you seen Athanasius the bishop?" they asked him. He responded truthfully: "It's only a short time since he passed this very spot, going up the river."!

Athanasius is a true "ecclesial Christian" - R. J. Neuhaus, for he it was who famously said (367), after years of wrangling over what should and should not be included in the canon: "Here is the New Testament!" listing for the first time the list of books (later ratified by the bishops in council). Praise be to God!