Athanasius of Alexandria
Athanasius the Great
- Lived
- c. 296–373
- Era
- The fathers
- Where
- Alexandria
- Tradition
- The apostolic communities
Holding the Nicene faith through five exiles
Present at Nicaea as a young deacon and bishop of Alexandria for forty-five years, of which he spent seventeen in exile under five emperors who wanted a settlement with the Arians more than they wanted him.
Why it matters
The case he pressed was not merely verbal: if the Son is a creature then what happened in the incarnation is not God meeting us, and the whole account of salvation fails. He held that line when most of the eastern episcopate had been persuaded or coerced the other way, which is the origin of the phrase Athanasius contra mundum. His festal letter of 367 lists the twenty-seven books of the New Testament exactly as they now stand, the first surviving list to do so.
In the record
-
325 AD Council
Council of Nicaea
Present as a young deacon, and spent forty-five years defending the result
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.