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, a tower of strength and comfort to his persecuted children.