ATHANASIUS, SAINT

born c. 293, , Alexandria died May 2, 373, Alexandria; feast day May 2 theologian, ecclesiastical statesman, and Egyptian national leader; he was the chief defender of Christian orthodoxy in the 4th-century battle against Arianism, the heresy that the Son of God was a creature of like, but not of the same, substance as God the Father. His important works include The Life of St. Antony and Four Orations Against the Arians. Additional reading The great Benedictine edition of the works of Athanasius (1698), reprinted in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 2528 (1857), is being replaced by that begun by H.G. Opitz (Athanasius Werke) in 1934; major works are translated in the Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 4, Select Writings and Letters of Athanasius (1892)the Prolegomena to this volume by A. Robertson remains the most complete life. For later discoveries and studies, see H.I. Bell (ed.), Jews and Christians in Egypt (1924); and the brilliant summary by F.L. Cross, The Study of St. Athanasius (1945). There are useful sketches in G.L. Prestige, Fathers and Heretics (1940, reprinted 1963); and in R.W. Thomson's edition of Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione (1971). For further references, see E.R. Hardy (ed.), Christology of the Later Fathers (1954); and J. Quasten, Patrology, vol. 3, pp. 2079 (1960).