The life of St Athanasius the Great of Alexandria
There he began the defense he would spend the rest of his life mounting, of the belief that the Son shares one essence with the Father.
He succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria in 328 and held that office, on and off, for forty-five years, though roughly sixteen of them were spent away from his see, as shifting imperial politics repeatedly exiled him and then allowed his return, by most counts across five separate periods of banishment, by some counts more. Through it all he refused to soften his position for the sake of peace with power, and it is this steadfastness that earned him his enduring title, Athanasius against the world.
He reposed in Alexandria on May 2, 373, remembered as the man whose stubborn faithfulness through repeated exile did more than perhaps any other single figure to hold the Nicene faith together in its first, most contested generation.
