St. ATHANASIUS In the 2007 Assembly, the Comboni Missionaries in Egypt chose St. Athanasius as their Patron Saint. We present this extraordinary Teacher of the ancient Church and the reasons why he was chosen. 1. SHORT BIOGRAPHY. In his General Audience on 20th June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about him: "In all likelihood Athanasius was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in about the year 300 A.D. He received a good education before becoming a deacon and secretary to the Bishop of Alexandria, the great Egyptian metropolis. As a close collaborator of his Bishop, the young cleric took part with him in the Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumenical Council, convoked by the Emperor Constantine in May 325 A.D. to ensure Church unity. The Nicene Fathers were thus able to address various issues and primarily the serious problem that had arisen a few years earlier from the preaching of the Alexandrian priest, Arius. With his theory, Arius threatened authentic faith in Christ, declaring that the Logos was not a true God but a created God, a creature "halfway" between God and man who hence remained for ever inaccessible to us. The Bishops gathered in Nicaea responded by developing and establishing the "Symbol of faith" ["Creed"] which, completed later at the First Council of Constantinople, has endured in the traditions of various Christian denominations and in the liturgy as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. In this fundamental text - which expresses the faith of the undivided Church and which we also recite today, every Sunday, in the Eucharistic celebration - the Greek term homoousios is featured, in Latin consubstantialis: it means that the Son, the Logos, is "of the same substance" as the Father, he is God of God, he is his substance. Thus, the full divinity of the Son, which was denied by the Arians, was brought into the limelight. In 328 A.D., when Bishop Alexander died, Athanasius succeeded him as Bishop of Alexandria. He showed straightaway that he was determined to reject any compromise with regard to the Arian theories condemned by the Council of Nicaea. His intransigence - tenacious and, if necessary, at times harsh - against those who opposed his episcopal appointment and especially against adversaries of the Nicene Creed, provoked the implacable hostility of the Arians and philo-Arians. Despite the unequivocal outcome of the Council, which clearly affirmed that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, these erroneous ideas shortly thereafter once again began to prevail - in this situation even Arius was rehabilitated -, and they were upheld for political reasons by the Emperor Constantine himself and then by his son Constantius II. Moreover, Constantine was not so much concerned with theological truth but rather with the unity of the Empire and its political problems; he wished to politicize the faith, making it more accessible - in his opinion - to all his subjects throughout the Empire. Thus, the Arian crisis, believed to have been resolved at Nicaea, persisted for decades with complicated events and painful divisions in the Church. At least five times - during the 30 years between 336 and 366 A.D. - Athanasius was obliged to abandon his city, spending 17 years in exile and suffering for the faith. But during his forced absences from Alexandria, the Bishop was able to sustain and to spread in the West, first at Trier and then in Rome, the Nicene faith as well as the ideals of monasticism, embraced in Egypt by the great hermit, Anthony, with a choice of life to which Athanasius was always close. St Anthony, with his spiritual strength, was the most important champion of St Athanasius' faith. Reinstated in his See once and for all, the Bishop of Alexandria was able to devote himself to religious pacification and the reorganization of the Christian communities. He died on 2 May 373, the day when we celebrate his liturgical Memorial". 2. REASONS FOR THE CHOICE. 1. Egyptian S. Athanasius is one of the greatest representatives of the extraordinary theological and historical heritage of the Alessandrian and Egyptian Church. This is the only church survived the Arabic invasion in North Africa. 2. Missionary As Patriarch of Alexandria, S. Athanasius was protagonist of the first great missionary initiative towards the sub-saharian Africa in the post-biblical period. During his most fruitful period in Alexandria he was committed to the evangelization of Ethiopia. About the year 350, he consecrated S. Frumentius as bishop of Aksum for the Ethiopian Church. 3. Bridge between churches During his first two exiles in Europe, S. Athanasius became a bridge between the two Christian traditions. In his description of the history of the religious life, the historian J.Lortz says: "in Occident, the first announcement of the new kind of life was spread by S. Athanasius during his exiles in Rome and Trier" (Lortz J., Storia della Chiesa, Torino, p. 228). These relations with some Dioceses of the area of Venice and his stay in that area are confirmed by himself in the Apology he addresses to the Emperor Constant. "During his journey in Occident he has never met the Emperor Constant by himself. He has always being accompanied by the Bishop of the city in which he was passing by. He supports this fact through the witness of Fortunato of Aquileia, Crispino of Padua, Lucillo of Verona and Vincent of Capua"(Leclercq H., Dictionaire d'Archeologie Chrétienne et Liturgie, 1935, p. 237). He may have also been friend of St. Zenus, who was consecrated bishop of Verona in 363. 4. Exiled and persecuted. S. Athanasius was protagonist of five exiles. He has paid at a high price his commitment to protect the integrity of the faith and reform the church. In this way he has shared the experience of refugees and oppressed people who are unfairly persecuted and never answer with violence. Click below to read the complete speech of the Pope in Arabic