Athanasius of Alexandria

Attested. Attested.

Athanasius attended Nicaea in 325 as deacon and secretary of Bishop Alexander, not as a voting bishop. The story that he wrote the creed is later legend. He became bishop of Alexandria in 328. He defended homoousios against several opposing theologies, not against one uniform Arian party. Standard lists give him five exiles: 335 to Trier under Constantine, after Tyre; 339 under Constantius II, spent largely in the West; 356 under Constantius II, hiding in Egypt; 362 under Julian, who had recalled exiles and then expelled him again; and 365 under the emperor Valens, for a few months until early 366. The day-counts come chiefly from the index to his festal letters. The legal pretext was not always the creed. During the third exile he wrote the Life of Antony, presenting the monk as an enemy of Arian teaching. In Festal Letter 39, for Easter 367, he lists the 27 books of the New Testament, the earliest known list of exactly that set. It is a bishop's Easter letter, not a council decree. He died in Alexandria on 2 May 373, eight years before Constantinople.

Leading opponent of Arianism, exiled five times. His Festal Letter of 367 is the first to list exactly the 27 New Testament books, and his Life of Antony spread the monastic ideal.

Bridge: Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381): the Trinity defined

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