The Show Notes for the last Athanasian Episodes

From Episode 56 to 59

I hardly need to speak of the bishops of Egypt and Libya and of the people of these lands and of Alexandria. They all assembled together and their joy was unspeakable, for not only had they received their friends back alive, which was beyond all their hope, but they were delivered from the heretics, who were like tyrants and raging dogs. Great was the delight of the people as they gathered in worship and incited each other to virtue. How many single women who were previously preparing themselves for marriage remained virgins for Christ! How many young men, witnessing the examples of others, fell in love with the monastic life! How many fathers urged their children and how many were persuaded by their children not to shirk back from the ascetic discipline in Christ! How many wives convinced their husbands and how many were persuaded by their husbands to “devote themselves to prayer,” as the apostle said (1 Cor 7:5)! How many widows and orphans, who were previously hungry and unclothed, received both food and clothing through the great zeal of the people. In short, the contest for virtue was such that one would have thought every family and household to be a church, on account of the virtuous nobility of its members and their prayers offered to God. There was a deep and wonderful peace among the churches, as the bishops wrote from everywhere to Athanasius and received from him the customary letters of peace. St. Athanasius, History of the Arians

“They say that he is not the Creator but a creature. If he was a creature, he would have been captured by death; but if, according to the Scriptures, he was not captured by death, then he is not a creature but the Lord of the creatures and the subject of this immortal feast.” St. Athansius 11th Paschal Letter

And yet after all this you fault us for departing from the canons?… Consider, then, who it is who is acting in transgression of the canons: we, who have received this man after so many proofs {of his innocence}, or those in Antioch, who from the distance of a thirty-six days’ journey, named a foreigner as bishop and sent him to Alexandria with military force?… What ecclesiastical canon or which apostolic tradition is this, that while a church was at peace and there were so many bishops in unanimity with Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, Gregory should be sent there, a foreigner to the city, who was neither baptized there nor known to the people, nor requested by the presbyters or the bishops or the people—someone who was appointed in Antioch but then sent to Alexandria, accompanied not by priests nor by deacons of that city nor by the bishops of Egypt but by soldiers? Pope St. Julian on the Eusebians.

From Episode 57

“He was the first and only one, or perhaps with the agreement of a few, to put down precisely in writing the unity of the Godhead in its substance of the three Persons; and further to assert in subsequent days, inspired of God, the same faith as regards the {divinity} Holy Spirit as had been embraced earlier by most of the Fathers in regard to the Son.” St. Gregory the Theologian on declaring St. Athanasius the great defender of the divinity of the Spirt.

It was now already night and some of the people were keeping vigil, in anticipation of the coming service. The general Syrianus suddenly appeared with more than five thousand soldiers bearing arms and drawn swords, bows, spears, and clubs, as I said before. He surrounded the church and stationed the soldiers nearby so that no one would be able to pass by them and leave the church. I considered it unreasonable to abandon the people in the midst of such turmoil, and not rather to endanger myself for their sakes. So I sat upon the throne and urged that first the deacon should read a psalm and the people respond, “For his mercy is forever” (Ps 136), and then everyone should leave and go away to their homes. But the general then entered by force and the soldiers surrounded the altar in order to arrest us. The clergy and the people who were there shouted and demanded that we also depart. But I refused, saying that I would not leave until each and every one of them had left. And so, getting up and exhorting everyone to prayer, I commanded that everyone else leave first, saying, “It is better for me to endanger myself than to have any of you come to harm.” When most of the people had gone out and the remaining were following them, the monks who were with us and some of the clergy came up and dragged us away. And so, as truth is my witness, while some of the soldiers were standing around the altar and others were going around the church, we passed through. Guided and protected by the Lord, we escaped their notice and went away, greatly glorifying God in that we had not abandoned the people, but had first sent them off and were then enabled to save ourselves and flee from the hands of our pursuers. (Defense of his Flight 24)

The word ousia, because when it was naively inserted by our fathers though not familiar to the masses, it caused disturbance, and because the Scriptures do not contain it, we have decided should be removed, and that there should be absolutely no mention of ousia in relation to God for the future, because the Scriptures make no mention at all of the ousia of the Father and the Son. But we declare that the Son is like the Father in all respects, as the holy Scriptures also declare and teach. Basil of Ankyra, the semi-Arian

From Episode 58

For what the human Body of the Word suffered, this the Word, dwelling in the body, ascribed to Himself, in order that we might be enabled to be partakers of the Godhead of the Word. And verily it is strange that He it was Who suffered and yet suffered not. Suffered, because His own Body suffered, and He was in it, which thus suffered; suffered not, because the Word, being by Nature God, is impassible. And while He, the incorporeal, was in the passible Body, the Body had in it the impassible Word, which was destroying the infirmities inherent in the Body. But this He did, and so it was, in order that Himself taking what was ours and offering it as a sacrifice, He might do away with it, and conversely might invest us with what was His, and cause the Apostle to say: ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality 1 Corinthians 15:53.’ St. Athanasius, Epistle 59, To Epictetus.

But truly our salvation is not merely apparent, nor does it extend to the body only, but the whole man, body and soul alike, has truly obtained salvation in the Word Himself. That then which was born of Mary was according to the divine Scriptures human by nature, and the Body of the Lord was a true one; but it was this, because it was the same as our body, for Mary was our sister inasmuch as we all are from Adam. And no one can doubt of this when he remembers what Luke wrote. For after He had risen from the dead, when some thought that they did not see the Lord in the body derived from Mary, but were beholding a spirit instead, He said, ‘See My hands and My feet, and the prints of the nails, that it is I Myself: handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see Me to have. And when He had said thus, He showed them His hands and His feet Luke 24:39.’ Whence they can be refuted who have ventured to say that the Lord was transformed into flesh and bones. For He did not say, ‘As you see Me to be flesh and bone,’ but ‘as you see Me to have,’ in order that it might not be thought that the Word Himself was changed into these things, but that He might be believed to have them after His resurrection as well as before His death. (St. Athanasius, Letter 59 to Epictetus)

We do not worship a creature. Far be the thought. For such an error belongs to heathens and Arians. But we worship the Lord of Creation, Incarnate, the Word of God. For if the flesh also is in itself a part of the created world, yet it has become God’s body. And we neither divide the body, being such, from the Word, and worship it by itself , nor when we wish to worship the Word do we set Him far apart from the Flesh, but knowing, as we said above, that ‘the Word was made flesh,’ we recognise Him as God also, after having come in the flesh. (St. Athanasius, letter 60 to Adelphius)

From Episode 59

When they tried to make inferences from the preaching of the divine Cross and wished to scoff, Antony paused for a moment, and first pitying them for their ignorance, said through an interpreter who gave an excellent translation of his words: “Which is better—to confess the Cross, or to attribute adulteries and pederasties to your so-called gods? For to maintain what we maintain is a sign of manly spirit and betokens disregard for death, whereas your claims bespeak but wanton passions. Again, which is better—to say that the Word of God was not changed, but remaining the same took on a human body for the salvation and well-being of mankind, so that by sharing human birth, He might make men partakers of the divine and spiritual nature; or to put the divine on a level with senseless things and therefore to worship beasts and reptiles and images of men? These precisely are the objects worshipped by you wise men. How dare you revile us for saying that Christ has appeared as man, whereas you derive the soul from heaven, saying that it strayed and fell from the vault of the heavens into the body? Would that it were only into the body of man, and not that it changed and migrated into beasts and serpents! From St. Athanasius’ Life of Antony

Now then, when they come to you at night and want to tell the future, or say, ‘We are the angels,’ ignore them, for they are lying. If they praise your practice of asceticism and call you blessed, do not listen to them nor have anything to do with them at all. Rather sign yourselves and your dwelling and pray; and you will see them disappear. They simply are cowards and deathly afraid of the Sign of our Lord’s Cross, since it was on the Cross that the Savior stripped them and made an example of them.124 But if they persist even more shamelessly, dancing about and changing their appearance, do not fear them, nor cower, nor give them any attention as though they were good; for it is quite possible to tell the difference. St. Antony, in St. Athanasius

His face, too. had a great and indescribable charm in it. And he had this added gift from the Savior: if he was present in a gathering of monks and someone who had no previous acquaintance with him wished to see him. as soon as he arrived he would pass over the others and run to Antony as if drawn bv his eves. It was not his stature or figure that made him stand out from the rest, but his settled character and the purity of his soul. St. Athanasius on St. Antony

And,

“Since the Lord dwelt with us, the Enemy is fallen and his powers have declined. Therefore, he can do nothing; still, though he is fallen, like a tyrant he does not keep quiet, but threatens even if his threats are but words. And let each one of you bear this in mind, and he can despise the demons.” St. Antony