The most likely time frame is in the late fifth or early sixth century AD – at least 100 years after Athanasius.

Athanasius is counted as one of the four Great Doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church as well as one of the Great Doctors of the Church in Eastern Orthodoxy, where he is also labeled the " Father of Orthodoxy ".

Athanasius is venerated as a Christian saint, whose feast day is 2 May in Western Christianity, 15 May in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and 18 January in the other Eastern Orthodox Churches.

St Athanasius ' year of birth is given anywhere from 296-298 or in 293.

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

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.

The relic of St Athanasius the Great of Alexandria is currently preserved under the new Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Deir El-Anba Rowais, Abbassiya, Cairo, Egypt.

The following is a troparion ( hymn ) to St Athanasius sung in some Eastern Orthodox churches.

St Gregory Nazianzen, fellow Doctor of the Church, 330-390, said in Or. 21: " 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.

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.

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.

Because Athanasius ' canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the canon used by Protestant churches today, many Protestants point to Athanasius as the father of the canon.

While Alexander had been priming Athanasius to assume the bishopric after his death, it is said, he was not unanimously supported, and questions of his age ( the minimum age to become a bishop was thirty, and questions remain to this day whether he was yet that old ).

However, there are also many modern historians who object to this view and point out that such a hostile attitude towards Athanasius is based on an unfair judgment of historical sources.

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.

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.

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.

Athanasius writes, " For monks, the life of Anthony is a sufficient example of asceticism.

He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Saint Athanasius mentions him in his life of Saint Anthony.

Statue of the saint in St Athanasius ' Roman Catholic Church in Evanston, Illinois.

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.

In Beowulf, the titular character battles against Grendel and his mother, while the saint, such as Athanasius ’ Anthony ( one of the original sources for the hagiographic motif ) or the character of Guthlac, battles against figures no less substantial in a spiritual sense.

The building project, according to the biography of saint Athanasius ( 11th century ), began with the protective wall and continued to the church and cells.

The term “ Arian ” bestowed by Athanasius upon his opponents in the Christological debate was polemical.

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

Voss, and it has since been widely accepted by modern scholars that the creed was not authored by Athanasius.

Athanasius ' first problem lay with the Meletians, who had failed to abide by the terms of the decision made at the First Council of Nicaea which had hoped to reunite them with the Church.

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 ' return was welcomed by the majority of the people of Egypt who had come to view him as a national hero.

This was followed, in 356, by an attempt to arrest Athanasius during a vigil service.

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 361, after the death of Emperor Constantius, shortly followed by the murder of the very unpopular Bishop George, the popular St Athanasius now had the opportunity to return to his patriarchate.

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.

St Athanasius ' long episcopate lasted 45 years ( c. 8 June 328 – 2 May 373 ) of which over 17 years were spent in five exiles ordered by four different Roman Emperors, not counting approximately six more incidents in which he had to flee Alexandria for his own safety to escape people seeking to take his life.

It was presided over by Athanasius and Eusebius of Vercelli, and was directed against those who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the human soul of Christ, and Christ's divinity.

St. Athanasius ( 1883-84 ), by Carl Rohl-Smith, Frederik's Church, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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 '.

As stated by Timothy Barnes, Athanasius used “ invented dialogue to ridicule his adversaries ”, and used “ suppression and distortion ” to serve his own means.

The Arian party, as described by Athanasius, may not have existed in the form he portrayed in his writings.

* Saint Athanasius by F. A. Forbes

* The so-called Athanasian Creed ( not written by Athanasius, see Athanasian Creed above )

* On the Incarnation by Athanasius of Alexandria, on theologynetwork. org