This traditional attribution of the Creed to Athanasius was first called into question in 1642 by Dutch Protestant theologian G. J.

Athanasius spent the first years of his patriarchate visiting the churches of his territory, which at that time included all of Egypt and Libya.

Ar., lxiv, and De Syn., xviii ), St Athanasius does not recall from memory being a first hand witness to the onset of the great persecution by the Tetrarchy of Diocletian and Maximian in February 303, for in referring to the events of this period he makes no direct appeal to his own personal recollections, but falls back on tradition.

However, in Coptic literature, St Athanasius is the first patriarch of Alexandria to use Coptic as well as Greek in his writings.

In the first part, Athanasius attacks several pagan practices and beliefs.

Athanasius ' letters include one " Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea " ( De Decretis ), which is an account of the proceedings of that council, and another letter in the year 367 which was the first known listing of the New Testament including all those books now accepted everywhere as the New Testament.

In Coptic literature, St. Athanasius is the first patriarch of Alexandria to use Coptic as well as Greek in his writings.

St Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today.

St Cyril of Alexandria, 370-444, In the first letter says: " Athanasius is one who can be trusted: he would not say anything that is not in accord with sacred scripture.

The term Arian was first coined by Athanasius to describe both followers of Arius, and followers of ideas that he deemed as bad as Arius '.

The first to report on the temptation was his contemporary Athanasius of Alexandria.

The first bishop of Ethiopia, Saint Frumentius, was consecrated as Bishop of Axum by Pope Athanasius of Alexandria in 328 AD.

Christianity was introduced into the country by Frumentius, who was consecrated first bishop of Ethiopia by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria about

The New Testament canon as it is now was first listed by St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367, in a letter written to his churches in Egypt, Festal Letter 39.

St. Athanasius, is the first Patriarch of Alexandria to use Coptic, as well as Greek.

Even if Athanasius and his companions were somewhat to blame, the letter runs, the Alexandrian Church should first have written to the pope.

According to Valesius these were mainly Socrates and Sozomen ; Albert Guldenpenning's thorough research placed Rufinus first, and next to him, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Sozomen, Sabinus, Philostorgius, Gregory Nazianzen, and, least of all, Socrates.

His first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to write to Emperor Constantius II, then in quarters at Arles ( 353 – 354 ), asking that a council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of Athanasius of Alexandria, but his messenger Vincentius of Capua was compelled by the emperor at a conciliabulum held in Arles to subscribe against his will to a condemnation of the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria.

He went on to publish the illustrated Pyramidographia in 1646, while the Jesuit scientist-priest Athanasius Kircher was perhaps the first to hint at the phonetic importance of Egyptian hieroglyphs, demonstrating Coptic as a vestige of early Egyptian, for which he is considered a " founder " of Egyptology.

Scholars have speculated that the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius who for the first time declared a strict canon of Christian scripture.

The Aeolian harp-already known in the ancient world – was first described by Athanasius Kircher ( 1602 – 1680 ) in his book Phonurgia nova ( 1673 ).

The two available references from this work are recorded by his opponent Athanasius: the first is a report of Arius's teaching in Orations Against the Arians, 1: 5-6.

The 2004 edition of the " Roman Martyrology " succinctly states, " In Aethiopia, sancti Frumentii, episcopi, qui, primum ibi captivus, deinde, episcopus a sancto Athanasio ordinatus, Evangelium in ea regione propagavit Ethiopia, ( the feast ) of Saint Frumentius, bishop, who first was a captive there, and then, as a bishop ordained by Saint Athanasius, he spread the Gospel in that region.

Alexandria became the centre of the first great split in the Christian world, between the Arians, named for the Alexandrian priest Arius, and their opponents, represented by Athanasius, who became Archbishop of Alexandria in 326 after the First Council of Nicaea rejected Arius's views.

Julius, after expressing an opinion favourable to Athanasius, adroitly invited both parties to lay the case before a synod to be presided over by himself.

The initial inventor of the speaking trumpet is a subject of historical controversy, as both Samuel Morland and Athanasius Kircher lay claim to the device.

The Old Testament was prepared under the auspices of the academic community of St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, using clergy and lay scholars.

He was given the rank of magistros, and his influential position is evident from the fact that Saint Athanasius the Athonite appointed him as the first lay guardian ( epitropos ) of his monastery of the Great Lavra.

Using his excellent knowledge of Greek, which was then rare in the West, to his advantage, he studied the Hebrew Bible and Greek authors like Philo, Origen, Athanasius, and Basil of Caesarea, with whom he was also exchanging letters.

Shortly thereafter, Athanasius became occupied with the disputes with the Byzantine Empire and Arians which would occupy much of his life.

At that meeting, Athanasius was accused of threatening to interfere with the supply of grains from Egypt, and, without any kind of formal trial, was exiled by Constantine to Trier in the Rhineland.

Athanasius did, however, remain in contact with his people through his annual Festal Letters, in which he also announced on which date Easter would be celebrated that year.

The persecution against the orthodox party broke out with renewed vigor, and Constantius II was induced to prepare drastic measures against Athanasius and the priests who were devoted to him.

Constantius ' persistence in his opposition to Athanasius, combined with reports Athanasius received about the persecution of non-Arians by the new Arian bishop George of Laodicea, prompted Athanasius to write his more emotional History of the Arians, in which he described Constantius as a precursor of the Antichrist.

In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius came into a direct conflict with Alexander of Alexandria.

Athanasius went into hiding in the desert with the Desert Fathers, and continued in his capacity as bishop from there until the death of Constantius II in 361.

This biography depicts Anthony as an illiterate and holy man who through his existence in a primordial landscape has an absolute connection to the divine truth, which always is synonymous with that of Athanasius as the biographer.

They are identical except that Athanasius includes the Book of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah and places the Book of Esther among the " 7 books not in the canon but to be read " along with the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach ( Ecclesiasticus ), Judith, Tobit, the Didache, and the Shepherd of Hermas.

21 with: " When I praise Athanasius, virtue itself is my theme: for I name every virtue as often as I mention him who was possessed of all virtues.

Written in Greek around 360 by Athanasius of Alexandria, it depicts Anthony as an illiterate and holy man who through his existence in a primordial landscape has an absolute connection to the divine truth, which always is in harmony with that of Athanasius as the biographer.

According to Athanasius, the devil fought St. Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Church celebrate his feast day on 9 June and also, together with Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria, on 18 January.

Jerome's version of the Life of St Anthony the Great, the hermit monk of Egypt, written by Athanasius of Alexandria, was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages ; it relates Anthony's encounter with a centaur, who challenged the saint but was forced to admit that the old gods had been overthrown.

Several early modern writers, including Athanasius Kircher and Emanuel Swedenborg, hypothesized contact with Mars.

* The World is Bound with Secret Knots: The Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher: A survey of the fields of study, writings and inventions of 17th century Jesuit polymath who was the founder of the Museum Kircherianum in Rome

Hypatius condemned it along with the Apollinarian texts, distributed during the Nestorian controversy under the names of Pope Julius and Athanasius, which the monophysites entered as evidence supporting their position.