Some of the early reports explicitly indicate that Athanasius spent this period of exile in his ancestral tomb.

Here, St Athanasius, spent his remaining days, characteristically enough, in re-emphasizing the view of the Incarnation which had been defined at Nicaea.

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.

Athanasius spent a good deal of his energy on polemical writings against his theological opponents.

Athanasius Kircher spent two years in Malta ( 1637 – 38 ) and made observations running counter to ideas of Punic ancestry accepted by his contemporaries.

A graduate of the Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome, he spent his career in Rome as teacher of Greek at the Greek college, and devoting himself to the study of classics and theology.

Such Christian luminaries as Ambrose, Jerome, Martin of Tours and Athanasius of Alexandria spent time in Augusta Treverorum.

Other notable Desert Fathers include Pachomius and Shenouda the Archimandrite, and many individuals who spent part of their lives in the Egyptian desert, including Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Hilarion and John Cassian.

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

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.

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.

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

Two years later, the Emperor Valens, who favored the Arian position, in his turn exiled Athanasius.

The years from 346 through 356 were a relatively peaceful period for Athanasius, and some of his most important writings were composed during this period.

Macedonius held the see for about six years, while letters and delegates, the pope and the emperors, synods and counter-synods, were debating and disputing the treatment of Paul and Athanasius.

This bishopric he held at least 17 years, the period of the principal intrigues against Athanasius, and of the reigns of Constantine the Great's sons.

Of the handful of fragments of his defence treatise that have survived, he refers to the doctrine and “ heresies of the Nicolaitan ;... most of all hated and abhorred of God himself ... the common received faith contained in those three inventions of man, commonly called the Three Creeds ... the, Nicene and Athanasius Creed, which faith within these 1600 years past hath prevailed in the world .”

He held this office for three or four years, as the clergy opposed his strict enforcement of the Church canons and he was not supported by Julian, the successor of Athanasius.

One hundred years later, the Deacon Arius would compare Bishop Alexander to Sabellius, in effect accusing Alexander and Athanasius of reviving an old heresy.

An Arabic manuscript of Ibn Wahshiyya's book Kitab Shawq al-Mustaham, a work that discusses a number of ancient alphabets, in which he deciphered a number of Egyptian hieroglyphs, was later read by Athanasius Kircher in the 17th century, and then translated and published in English by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall in 1806 as Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained ; with an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices in the Arabic Language by Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih, 16 years before Jean-François Champollion's complete decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.