St Athanasius

Athanasius was a good student; he loved to read books about the Catholic faith and about God during University.  He became a priest after he finished University and he made sure that the truth about God and Jesus was kept in our Church.  The Arian people living in Egypt at the time, did not believe that Jesus was God and they were trying to change this teaching in the Church.  Athanasius was at the meeting where the Nicene Creed was written and he made sure that it said that Jesus was God.  Athanasius then became the Archbishop of Alexandria in Egypt.  He was only 30 years old and he took care of his people for 46 years.  There were lots of people that didn’t like the teachings of Archbishop Athanasius, including 4 emperors of Alexandria.  They tried to make him stop writing and speaking the Truth about Jesus, but he never stopped.  Even when they tried to catch him so that they could kill him, he was never afraid and never stopped spreading the Truth about God and his son Jesus.  During the last 7 years of his life, the people he shepherded hid him from those who were trying to kill him, because they loved him so much.  During this time he wrote a book called, “The Life of St. Anthony the Hermit”.  Athanasius had been friends with St. Anthony when he was very young.  He was able to stay away from those that wanted to kill him and he died peacefully in the year 373.  He is a Doctor of the Church, for the great teachings that he left us.