Today the Church celebrates the
life and ministry of St. Athanasius, a bishop, a theologian and a defender of
the faith. Athanasius was born around 298
and he lived in Alexandria, Egypt.
His enemies nicknamed him the “Black
Dwarf” because he was short and dark skinned. Athanasius was exiled 5 times by 4 Roman
emperors spending 17 of the 45 years he served as bishop of Alexandria in
exile. In the end, Athanasius won out because his writings that shaped the theological
vision of the Church.
Here was the controversy; it
centered on the nature of Jesus Christ.
Arius, a priest in Libya, said that there was a time when the Son was
not. Specifically, he wrote: “If the
Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence,
and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not.” Athanasius said that the Son was eternal; he
was of the same “stuff” as God the Father.
Just as the Father is eternal, so is the Son.
Word of the dispute made it to
the Emperor Constantine, who wanted a unified Church, so to settle the matter,
he called a council of bishops.
Of the 1,800 bishops invited to
Nicaea, about 300 came; they argued, fought, and eventually fleshed out an
early version of the Nicene Creed. The council condemned Arius as a heretic,
exiled him, and made it a capital offense to possess his writings. Constantine
was pleased that peace had been restored to the church. Athanasius, whose
treatise On the Incarnation laid the
foundation for the orthodox party at Nicaea, was hailed as “the noble champion
of Christ.”
Let us pray: Uphold your
Church, O God of truth, as you upheld your servant Athanasius, to maintain and
proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in
the grace of your eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we
might share his divinity; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
TOMORROW IS THE
BIG DAY—THE 4TH ANNUAL BBQ WITH NEIL “BIGMISTA” STRADER AND HIS
FRIENDS IS FINALLY HERE! Please be there
to help if you have committed to do so, and remind all of your friends and
family about it.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar
St. Augustine of Hippo
Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
Thank you so much ! St. Athanasius is my Confirmation saint, and today is May 2nd, 2020. Blessings to you for this excellent article. I'm a fellow Texan in Converse.
ReplyDeleteThere is no historical record of Athanasius being called "black dwarf." This was an invention of Justo Gonzalez, "Story of Christianity: Volume 1," Chapter 19, p.199. This is a quote from my own research on the matter:
ReplyDelete"There are only two historical references to the physical attributes of Athanasius: one from the Emperor Julian, also known as Julian the Apostate, and a reference from Gregory Nanzianzen in his address celebrating the life of Athanasius."
Neither refer to Athanasius as "black," nor as necessarily short.
You can find both citations in my article. Please correct this mistake. It is sad when others cite works online which failed in the beginning to give any historical evidence. A search for "athanasius black dwarf" yields 69,000 results...all citing this ahistorical "fact." If you do this search you can find my article on church history 101 dot com. Blessings to you. Al Baker