We have seen the tremendous earthquake that the heresy of Arius provoked in a Church that was entering an era of stability and prosperity after the peace of Constantine. The first years of the fourth century, in fact, brought social peace for Christianity, but at the same time witnessed the outbreak of a long war between Arians and Nicenes. The former defended the doctrines of the Alexandrian Arius, which for many bishops represented a bridge to the dominant culture of the time and for others represented a certain continuity with their theological and cultural traditions. The latter defended the orthodoxy established at the Council of Nicaea, in which they saw the best way to safeguard the Trinitarian doctrine and faith in the divinity of Christ, considered the fundamental pillar of the Church's saving message.
A combative and brilliant bishop
In this convulsive environment, and forming the main part of the second side, not to say that he is its leader, we find the powerful figure of St. Athanasius. As with other holy fathers, we know very little about his origin and his early years. It seems that he may have been born in the years before 300, since in the first decades of the fourth century he carried out his ministry as a deacon as a close collaborator of Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria who had to face the outbreak of the Arian crisis.
In 328, three years after the Council of Nicaea, he was appointed bishop of Alexandria. He had to confront the doctrines of Arius in the same diocese of the heretic, which was also affected by other tensions, such as the Meletian schism. The fight against Arianism will be a pressing priority in his episcopal magisterium, which he will develop throughout his life in brilliant pastoral and theological writings. Even so, he would not neglect the guidance of his faithful in the most diverse facets of the life of a community, as we see in his extensive collection of Easter Letterswritten annually to announce Easter to the Egyptian dioceses that depended on Alexandria.
In any case, the urgency that St. Athanasius perceives in the Arian question is motivated by what it implies as a denial of the Church's saving message. In fact, Arius maintains that the Word (Logos), the Son of God, does not share the divine essence with the Father, being a kind of created god (more in keeping with the dominant culture of Neoplatonic Hellenism). But the Christian tradition affirmed that humanity could only be saved, restored, renewed and recreated if it became solidary with a truly divine Word, as happens in the Incarnation. In this salvific mystery par excellence, the one who unites himself to humanity is someone fully divine, and therefore can communicate to men the salvific gifts of incorruptibility, immortality, divinization and knowledge of God.
Ultimately, the salvation of man is only possible if humanity is assumed in the Incarnation by someone truly divine. If the Word is not God, man is not saved, and furthermore, the Trinitarian preaching of the Christian tradition is invalidated. Given the seriousness of these consequences, we understand the urgency with which St. Athanasius fought the Arian heresy. This polemic, however, he developed it with a very firm tone, strong theological positions, little pastoral condescension and a relationship with bishops and rulers that was not at all political. For this reason he was the object of denunciations and rejections, which were concretized in the Synod of Tyre in 335, where a committee of philo-Arian bishops forced the deposition of St. Athanasius and obtained from the emperor Constantine his banishment to Trier, in remote Gaul.
Roads of exile
Thus began his long journey through the deserts of exile, to which his firm adherence to Nicene orthodoxy and his complex relationships with bishops and emperors led him throughout his life. He suffered five exiles under five successive emperors: Constantine (335-337), Constantius I (339-345), Constantius II (356-361), Julian (362-363) and Valens (365-366, a few years after his death in 373). These experiences, however, were cause for lucid reflections. Thus, the Easter Letter X (written from Trier) and the Speech against the Arianswritten at the same time, are two fundamental works in the long polemic with Arianism.
During his second exile, this time in Rome, he will write his important treatise on The decrees of the Council of Nicaea. The Council had chosen the term homoousios (of the same essence or nature) to define how the Father and the Son share the same ousia divine. St. Athanasius will clearly defend this term, which, on the other hand, will identify the minority section of those bishops, the homoousianswho defended the Nicene orthodoxy. Among them was also St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, and author of a very important theological treatise About the Trinitythe first of its kind.
The next exile was in the desert, where he was sent by Constantius II. But once again in this situation, St. Athanasius enriched his thought and literary production. His stay in the desert brought him into contact with the great monastic tradition of the Egyptian desert, founded by St. Anthony Abbot. About him, St. Athanasius will write his Life of AntonioThe monks are presented as the custodians of the true doctrinal and spiritual tradition and, therefore, firm adversaries of Arianism and protectors of those who, like St. Athanasius, suffer for opposing it. The monks present themselves as custodians of the true doctrinal and spiritual tradition and, therefore, firm adversaries of Arianism and protectors of those who, like St. Athanasius, suffer for opposing it. In order to exhort the faithful of Egypt to remain faithful to the truth and not to fall into the nets of compromise and false unity, he writes a vibrant Letter to the Bishops of Egypt and LibyaIn the face of the confusion and division among the bishops, he urged them not to approve in their dioceses formulas of faith opposed to Nicea or ambiguous.
Tradition, saved
For years, St. Athanasius continued to be involved in conflicts, ecclesiastical tensions, episcopal ambiguities, succession crises of the emperors and recurrent banishments. In fact, the earthquake unleashed by Arius would not cease in the East until the Emperor Theodosius decreed Nicene orthodoxy. homoousiana However, despite not seeing the end of the crisis, St. Athanasius remained faithful to his mission of explaining, defending and spreading the doctrine received from the Apostolic Tradition.
He will still write the Letters to SerapionIn it we have an important reflection on the theology of the Holy Spirit: that the Nicene faith declares that the Father and the Son share the same and unique divine essence does not mean denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Although St. Athanasius tends to emphasize the unity within the Trinity (so as not to lower the divinity of the Son), he will not forget the rich Alexandrian theological tradition, very interested in the diversity of the three divine persons and their relationships among themselves: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we can highlight its Easter Letter XXXIX (already of the year 367), in which he expounds the tradition of the diocese of Alexandria on the books accepted in the canon of Sacred Scripture. We have in it one of the oldest expositions of the tradition of the Holy Fathers on the canon of the Bible.
The courage of St. Athanasius, his fortitude, his fidelity to the doctrine received from tradition, his acceptance of the orthodoxy defined at Nicaea and his brilliant ability as a writer and theologian, make him an exceptional figure. Thanks to him and to the great Fathers of the fourth century, Catholic doctrine was saved from succumbing to the worldliness of the Arian crisis, and thus the Church was able to continue to sustain its salvific mission in the midst of the world.
