362, 365 AD), incurring the wrath of Emperors Constantine, Constantius,
Julian the Apostate and Valens in the process. All up, St. Athanasius spent
more than one-third of his episcopate away from his see. He was attacked,
calumnied, formally condemned and pursued. He survived partly due to his
determined, inflexible and noble character and supreme confidence that
sooner or later God would make truth prevail. He never wavered or
compromised even during the darkest hours. He was a true leader whose
authority and counsel were never questioned. Only in his last seven years
from 366 to 373 AD did St. Athanasius remain undisturbed.
As a writer, St. Athanasius was not refined, nor did he possess a great
knowledge of the classics. Yet he had a clear mind and composed with
firmness and logic. He knew what to say and put his whole soul into saying
it. He never wrote just for the sake of writing, but did so to plead the cause
of the Nicene faith and confound his opponents. In his works can be
distinguished the exegetical, apologetical, dogmatic, polemical, moral,
disciplinary and the epistol.
Extracts
Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word (C. 318 AD):
8, 3
“If the Son of God had wanted merely to appear, He could certainly have assumed
any kind of body, even one better than ours. Instead it was our own kind of body
that He took, and not just in any way. He took it from a pure and unstained Virgin,
who had not known man.”
47, 2
“And while in times past demons, occupying springs or rivers or trees or stones,
cheated men by deceptive appearances and imposed upon the credulous by their
juggleries, now, after the divine coming of the Word, an end is put to their
deceptions. For by the sign of the cross, a man but using it, their wiles are put to
flight.”
Apology Against the Arians (C. 347 AD):
3, 29
“It was for our sake that Christ became man, taking flesh from the Virgin Mary,
Mother of God.”
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