Saint Athanasius
Doctor of the Church
Pray for Us!
Saint Athanasius was born at Alexandria in 294. He accompanied Bishop Alexander to the Council of Nicaea, and succeeded him as bishop of Alexandria. He fought courageously against the Arian heresy. For this he suffered many hardships and was exiled several times. His writings are outstanding in their explanation and defense of the true teachings of the faith. He died in 373.*
“The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. Yet is was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time. For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence; together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places.
“Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have mastery over us; he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain. He therefore took to himself a body, no different from our own, for he did not wish simply to be in a body or only to be seen…
(From a discourse by Saint Athanasius, bishop, from the Second Reading, Office of Readings, Liturgy of the Hours)
* From the precis for the Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, in the Liturgy of the Hours, for May 2nd.
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Art for this post on Saint Athanasius, Doctor of the Church: Saint Athanasius was persecuted, Otto Bitschnau, Leben der Heilingen 1883, PD-US copyright expired, Wikimedia Commons.
