Saint Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy

								


Produced by David McClamrock

SAINT ATHANASIUS
c. 297-373
THE FATHER OF ORTHODOXY
By F.A. [Francis Alice] Forbes

"Jesus said to them: Amen, Amen I say to you, before Abraham was
made, I am."
--John 8:58
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. . . . And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
--John 1:14

Nihil Obstat: J.N. Strassmaier, S.J.

              Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur:   Edmund Canon Surmont

              Vicar General

              Westminster

              August 5, 1919

Originally published in 1919 by R. & T. Washbourne, Ltd., London, as
part of the series Standard-bearers of the Faith: A Series of Lives
of the Saints for Young and Old.

"Born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light,
true God of true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the
Father . . . "
--From the Nicene Creed

CONTENTS
1.  A Foreshadowing
2.  Arius the Heresiarch
3.  The Great Council
4.  The Calm Before the Storm
5.  False Witnesses
6.  A Royal-Hearted Exile
7.  The Day of Rejoicing
8.  The Invisible Patriarch
9.  A Short-Lived Peace
10. The Last Exile
11. The Truce of God

SAINT ATHANASIUS
"I and the Father are one."
--Words of Our Lord (John 10:30)

Chapter 1
A FORESHADOWING
THE Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt was expecting company. He stood at
the window of his palace looking down the long road, that at the first
sign of his guests' arrival he might go forth and welcome them. Before
him, like a white pearl in the blue waters of the Mediterranean, lay
the city of Alexandria--"the beautiful," as men loved to call it.
Across the harbor the marble tower of the great lighthouse soared up
into the clear Eastern sky, white as the white cliffs of the Island of
Pharos from which it sprang. It was noonday, and the sunshine lay like
a veil of gold over all.
The Patriarch's thoughts were wandering in the past. He had been
celebrating the anniversary of his holy predecessor Peter, the
previous Bishop, who had won the crown of martyrdom during the
terrible persecution of the Christians not so many years before.
Several of the clergy present had come from afar to assist at the
festival, and these were to be his expected guests.
The time of suffering was past and over, and yet it seemed to
Alexander as if it had all happened yesterday and might happen again
tomorrow. There stood the great palace of the Caesars, where the pagan
emperor had sat in judgment upon the lambs of Christ's flock; there
the famous temple of Serapis, where the Christians had been dragged to
offer incense to the gods; there the amphitheater where they had been
torn to pieces by beasts and slain with the sword for confessing the
Name of Christ. And all through those dark days, firm and steadfast as
the lighthouse on the cliffs of Pharos, had stood the Patriarch Peter,