Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius Alexandrinus

Biography

Born in Alexandria around 295, to Greek-speaking and probably pagan parents, Athanasius converted to Christianity at a young age. He wrote in Greek, but had also learned to speak Coptic. His main sources of inspiration are the Greek Bible and the Fathers (Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origen, Athenagoras). He took part in the Council of Nicaea as a deacon and secretary to Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria. Upon the death of Alexander in 328, Athanasius was unanimously elected to succeed him. A champion of orthodoxy in the struggle against Arianism, he was forced five times to flee into exile and was condemned by ecclesiastical synods or by philo-Arian emperors. He died in 373.

He is the author of important apologetic and dogmatic works (Discourses against the Arians, Letters to Serapion, etc.), of various exegetical, ascetical and polemical writings, and of a hagiographic biography, the Life of St. Anthony, which exerted a considerable influence on monasticism.

Works

• Apologia ad Constantium
• Apologia contra Arianos seu Apologia secunda
• Apologia de fuga sua
• De decretis Nicaenae synodi
• De morbo et ualetudine

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Quotations

• [OBNIg]
• [JB] Ge
• [JB] Ge 1
• [JB] Ge 1:1
• [JB] Ge 1:1-27

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