A Miracle of Saints Anthony the Great and Athanasios the Great to a Cancer Patient in Athens

On January 17-18 at the Monastery of Saint Andrew in Kefallonia in 1997, we waited for Fr. Gerasimos Fokas to begin the vigil. He came a little late, but to our great joy he came together with our other great Elder, Fr. Hierotheos Sourvanos. He told us that he was coming straight from the airport and that there were traces of pain and suffering on his face for the people he constantly cared about.

"Do not bring me papers of names for those who seek to be healthy tonight if they merely suffer from a cold. Only for those who are seriously ill, for cancer patients, we will pray."

It is better to hear it from himself. Here are excerpts from the sermon of this blessed man about that blessed night. The excerpt is from a recorded sermon of Fr. Gerasimos during the vigil on January 17/18, 1998 in the Monastery of Saint Andrew.

The Church of Saint Athanasios in Thessaloniki and the Greek Revolution of 1821

The Church of Saint Athanasios is located in the center of the city of Thessaloniki, southeast of the Church of Acheiropoietos, at the junction of Egnatia Street with Sokratous Street.

According to an inscription above the southern entrance, the church was built in 1818. It is a three-aisled wooden-roofed basilica with a nave, an architectural type that was widespread in Macedonia during the Turkish occupation and especially in the 19th century.

However, one of the tragic events of the Greek Revolution in Thessaloniki, which is associated with the church, and remains unknown in the collective memory of the city, is what happened in the then newly built Church of Saint Athanasios.

Life, Work and Thought of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (Fr. George Florovsky)

I. Life.

St. Athanasius was born into a Greek Christian family in Alexandria at the end of the third century, probably in 295. During his youth he witnessed the persecutions which took place under Diocletian. In the words of St. Gregory the Theologian, he spent "little time" in getting a general education or in studying the secular sciences but he had some knowledge of classical philosophy and of Neoplatonism in particular. He gave most of his attention to the study of Scripture, which he knew extremely well. Possibly he studied at the Catechetical School in Alexandria.

Saint Maximus III, Patriarch of Jerusalem

St. Maximus of Jerusalem (Feast Day - May 9)

According to Sozomen, Saint Maximus was a confessor of the persecution against Christians by the Emperor Diocletian, and was condemned to work in the mines, after having first deprived him of his right eye, and the use of his left leg.

Maximus was so popular among the people for his good character and for being a confessor that when Saint Macarius the Bishop of Jerusalem attempted to appoint him as Bishop of Lydda (also known as Diospolis) the populace insisted upon his retention in Jerusalem. Upon Macarius' death Maximus became Bishop of Jerusalem in 333, and was present in 335 at the first Synod of Tyre, and signed that synod's condemnation of Saint Athanasius, which he later realized he was deceived into doing.

Translation of the Sacred Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great: Epistle and Gospel Reading

Translation of the Sacred Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great

May 2nd

 Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Mode 4.
Daniel 3.26,27
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
Verse: For you are just in all you have done.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 13:7-16

English

Brethren, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their lives, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Did Gregory the Theologian Refer to the Writings of Dionysius the Areopagite?

In his Oration on the Theophany of Christ, Gregory the Theologian writes in section 6:

"But when I say God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... This then is the Holy of Holies, which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and is glorified with the thrice-repeated Holy, meeting in one ascription of the title Lord and God, as one of our predecessors has most beautifully and loftily pointed out."

The question is: Who is the "predecessor" Gregory is referring to? Some believe Gregory is referring to Athanasius the Great, while others believe he is referring to Dionysius the Areopagite.

On the Interpretation of the Psalms (A Letter of St. Athanasius of Alexandria to Marcellinus)

My dear Marcellinus,

Your steadfastness in Christ fills me with admiration. Not only are you bearing well your present trial, with its attendant suffering; you are even living under rule and, so the bearer of your letter tells me, using the leisure necessitated by your recent illness to study the whole body of the Holy Scriptures and especially the Psalms. Of every one of those, he says, you are trying to grasp the inner force and sense. Splendid! I myself am devoted to the Psalms, as indeed to the whole Bible; and I once talked with a certain studious old man, who had bestowed much labour on the Psalter, and discoursed to me about it with great persuasiveness and charm, expressing himself clearly too, and holding a copy of it in his hand the while he spoke. So I am going to write down for you the things he said.

The Forty-Five Paschal Letters of Athanasius the Great

The Festal Letters or Paschal Letters are a series of annual letters by which the Archbishops of Alexandria, in conformity with a decision of the First Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea, announced the date on which Easter was to be celebrated. The Synod chose Alexandria because of its famous school of astronomy, and the date of Easter depends on the spring equinox and the phases of the moon.

Homily on the Resurrection of Lazarus (St. Athanasius of Alexandria)

 

(Click on text to expand size.)

 

On the Evils That Proceed from Rejecting Free Will (St. Syncletike of Alexandria)

By St. Athanasius of Alexandria

(From the Teachings of Saint Syncletike)

81. One of the soul-destroying wild beasts is to be dragged down on the part of those who talk about fate, even if they call it 'genesis.' This is the most terrible nail of the devil. When often he only moves pestilential illusion against the mind of serious souls, and then he flies away; but he dominates the more negligent. For no one of those living according to virtue believes in or accepts the deranged and vain notion of this one. For he places God as the beginning of all goods that have existed and that now exist; and secondly he appoints God in his own mind as the chief and judge of virtue and vice. Such ones who have suffered from thoughtlessness and apathy come immediately to that demon. For just as children who desert their post and do not recall the education from their parents for their use, they, shrinking back, gain possession of the desert spaces and are united with wild and barbarous demons. For fearing to place the blame for their own actions on their intentions, they calumniate things that are not there.

Saint Theodore the Sanctified, Disciple of Pachomios the Great

St. Theodore the Sanctified (Feast Day - May 16)

Verses

You are shown forth as a divine gift, Theodore,A

Among the Saints, O sanctified Saint.
On the sixteenth Theodore flew away from the earth.

Saint Theodore was called “Sanctified” because he had purified his heart of its passions and made his body a worthy temple of the Holy Spirit, so that he was the first in his monastery to be ordained to the priesthood.*

Synaxarion for the Translation of the Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great

On the second of this month [May], we commemorate the translation of the relic of our Holy Father Athanasius the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria.

Verses

Athanasius where are you escorted? May it not be
That even dead are you sent away in exile?
On the second Athanasius was stripped of his corpse in the sepulcher.

Our Holy Father Athanasius lived an angelic life on this earth. The struggles this man who is worthy of blessings faced on behalf of the Orthodox faith, and the battles and resistance he made against the heretics, with the continuous and unjust exiles he endured, and the slanders and vain criticisms he received from the cacodox, all these things, I say, have been narrated in other histories, though the most lengthy is by Gregory the Theologian. Therefore I, not wanting to narrate all things here referred to by historians, will briefly say a few things to consider.

Holy Martyr Eutychios the Subdeacon of Alexandria (+ 356)

St. Eutychios the Subdeacon (Feast Day - March 26);
picture shows ancient Alexandria

By St. Athanasius of Alexandria

(History of the Arians, 7.59 & 60)

For [the Arians] made themselves formidable to all men, and treated all with great arrogance, using the name of the Emperor [Constantius], and threatening [the Christians] with his displeasure. They had to assist them in their wickedness the Duke Sebastianus, a Manichee, and a profligate young man; the Prefect, the Count, and the Receiver-General as a dissembler. Many Virgins who condemned their impiety, and professed the truth, they brought out from the houses; others they insulted as they walked along the streets, and caused their heads to be uncovered by their young men. They also gave permission to the females of their party to insult whom they chose; and although the holy and faithful women withdrew on one side, and gave them the way, yet they gathered round them like Bacchanals and Furies , and esteemed it a misfortune if they found no means to injure them, and spent that day sorrowfully on which they were unable to do them some mischief. In a word, so cruel and bitter were they against all, that all men called them hangmen, murderers, lawless, intruders, evil-doers, and by any other name rather than that of Christians.

The Beautiful Virgin Who Hid St. Athanasius the Great for Six Years

The following accounts, written by two early fifth century historians, recall the third exile of Athanasius the Great during the reign of Constantius. Through the influence of the Eusebian faction at Constantinople, an Arian bishop, George of Cappadocia, was now appointed to rule the see of Alexandria. Athanasius, after remaining some days in the neighborhood of the city, finally withdrew into the desert of Upper Egypt, where he remained for a period of six years (356-362 AD), living the life of the monks, devoting himself to the composition of a group of writings: "Apology to Constantius", the "Apology for his Flight", the "Letter to the Monks", and the "History of the Arians". According to tradition, the identity of the beautiful virgin ascetic who hid St. Athanasius during these six years (which Palladius mistakenly numbers 30 years) was St. Syncletike of Alexandria (Jan. 5). It is said that the Life and Sayings of St. Syncletike were recorded by St. Athanasius, and it is one of the most important spiritual texts of the Church.

Life and Sayings of our Holy Mother Syncletike of Alexandria

St. Syncletike or Syncletica (Feast Day - January 5). 
Fresco above by Elder Sophrony Sakharov at the refectory of St John the Baptist Monastery in Essex.

Verses

Syncletike left behind a life of bondage,
Called by God she is joined with the servants in heaven.

By St. Athanasius of Alexandria

The blessed Syncletike, named after the heavenly assembly [synkletos], was from the land of the Macedonians. Her ancestors, having heard of the love of God and the love of Christ of the Alexandrians, went from Macedonia to lay hold of the city of the Macedonian (Alexandria). When they arrived at the place, they found the circumstances to be better than what they had heard said about the place. It was not that a large number of people pleased them, nor did they marvel at the greatness of the buildings; but finding there a single faith with pure love, they regarded this foreign settlement their second home.

Saint Athanasios the Great Resource Page

St. Athanasios the Great (Feast Days - January 18 and May 2)

 

About  

 

Life, Work and Thought of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

A Profile of Saint Athanasius the Great of Alexandria 

 

Synaxarion for the Translation of the Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great 

 

Translation of the Sacred Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great: Epistle and Gospel Reading 

 

Synaxarion of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Archbishops of Alexandria

 

Saint Athanasius the Great as a Model for our Lives

 

January: Day 18: Saints Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria
 

Saint Athanasios of Alexandria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

Panegyric to St. Athanasius the Great by St. Gregory the Theologian  

  

An Apologia For the Exile of St. Athanasius by Constantine the Great

 

Saint Athanasios the Great and Our Times (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

  

The Beautiful Virgin Who Hid St. Athanasius the Great for Six Years

  

The Writing Style of Saint Athanasius the Great

 

"A Masterpiece", "A Picture of the Tree of Life": What C.S. Lewis Said About Saint Athanasius the Great and his 'On the Incarnation'

 

 

Shrines, Relics and Miracles

 

Synaxarion for the Translation of the Relic of Saint Athanasius the Great

 

Translation of the Holy Relics of Saint Athanasios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

The Relics of Saint Athanasius the Great

 

Two Miracles of St. Athanasius the Great in Kerkyra

 

A Miracle of Saints Anthony the Great and Athanasios the Great to a Cancer Patient in Athens

 

The Church of Saint Athanasios in Thessaloniki and the Greek Revolution of 1821

 

Greek Customs and Folk Traditions Associated With the Feast of Saint Athanasios the Great

 

 

Writings and Teachings

  

On the Interpretation of the Psalms (A Letter of St. Athanasius of Alexandria to Marcellinus)

 

Why Jesus Came Into the World

 

The Poisonous Songs of Arius

  

Did Christ Have A Fallen Human Nature?

 

Encomium to Saint Andrew the Apostle (St. Athanasios the Great) 

 

Homily on the Resurrection of Lazarus (St. Athanasius of Alexandria)

  

The Death of Christ in the Air Cleansed the Atmosphere of Demons (St. Athanasius the Great)

 

The Power of the Cross Against Demons and Magic (St. Athanasius the Great)

 

The Forty-Five Paschal Letters of Athanasius the Great

 

Holy Martyr Eutychios the Subdeacon of Alexandria (+ 356)

 

Life and Sayings of our Holy Mother Syncletike of Alexandria

 

Saint Anthony the Great Resource Page

 

Saint Theodore the Sanctified

 

Did Gregory the Theologian Refer to the Writings of Dionysius the Areopagite?

Synaxarion of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Archbishops of Alexandria

On the eighteenth of this month [January], we commemorate our Holy Fathers Athanasius and Cyril, the Archbishops of Alexandria.

Verses

To Athanasius

Although dead Athanasius lives,

For the righteous live even when dead.

To the Flight of Cyril

Today is prescribed the commemoration of the flight of Cyril,

Where he accomplished an ever-memorable achievement.

On the eighteenth the body of Athanasius was mournfully buried.

Of these two Holy Fathers of ours, Saint Athanasius flourished during the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337) and was present at the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea in the year 325 as a Deacon of Archbishop Alexander of Alexandria. There he put to shame the impious Arius with wise words and proofs from Holy Scripture. Following the repose of the blessed Alexander, he was made Archbishop of Alexandria. Because Constantius (337-361), the son of Constantine the Great, was an Arian, he exiled this Great Athanasius to various places. After the blessed one remained steadfast for forty years in such persecution, he departed to the Lord.

Saint Athanasius the Great as a Model for our Lives

St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Feast Day - January 18 and May 2)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Heresy in the Church is what a severe illness is to a human body. It is a cancer which if not expelled will endanger the spiritual health of its members. This is why the Church, the authentic Body of Christ, out of love and philanthropy, through its healthy members, the saints, fights heresies, just like the immune system of a healthy body fights the virus that causes the illnesses. However, it does not regard heretics as enemies, as indeed the Church has no enemies, but sick members whom it loves and tries to heal.

Athanasius the Great fought like few ever have to preserve the truths of the faith against the heretics that tried to alter it, and they fought him furiously. With slander and all sorts of machinations they accomplished, many times, in exiling him and distancing him from his flock. Remarkably, out of the forty-six years he was Archbishop of Alexandria, sixteen he spent in exile. But even from there he never stopped fighting for his flock against heresy.

Heresy creates factions and schisms, it splits and divides. Saint Peter of Alexandria had the blessing to see Christ, who wore a split tunic. When the Saint asked who split His tunic, Christ replied: "The fool Arius". The word "heresy" (αίρεση) comes from the verb αιρέω which means "to elect". Heretics choose a piece of truth that helps them to support their views and in turn reject the truth in its entirety. This creates many problems, because when the faith is altered the correct way of life is lost. This way of life is the method of treating the passions, the method of the purification of the heart, by which man is led to the knowledge of God ("Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"), since the vision of God is identical with true knowledge.

Arius argued that Christ is not God, but a creation of God, "created in time", and therefore, like all created things, He has a beginning and an end. If this is true, however, then He cannot save man, since only God has that ability. But we know from Holy Scripture, as well as the experience of the Church, that Christ was incarnated to save and deify man.

At the First Ecumenical Synod, which condemned Arius, Saint Athanasius participated as a young deacon (he was around 26) as a representative of the Archbishop of Alexandria, and with compelling arguments he showed the delusions and falsehoods of the teachings of Arius. And later as the Archbishop of Alexandria, with strong words, both spoken and written, he expressed clearly the truths that the heretics twisted. Namely, that Christ is not a creation, but "the Son and Word of God, the perfect offspring of the Father, begotten not according to will, but according to nature. He did not come about because the Father willed it, but because it is in the nature of the Father to beget the Son and in the nature of the Son to be begotten. This is how He differs from created things. He is the image and likeness of the Father, while man is simply according to the image and according to the likeness. He is without beginning, like the Father."

The Church has given the epithet "Great" to few people. Among these Saint Athanasius holds a prominent position. It has been written of him: "Rarely has the epithet 'Great' uncovered such a substantial subject as in the case of Athanasius of Alexandria. He was great in zeal, great in love, great in holiness, great in Orthodoxy. With these qualifications he is now such a part of the living consciousness of the Christian people its as if he was alive physically." Even Saint Gregory the Theologian, in his memorial speech for Athanasius the Great, begins with the characteristic phrase: "When we praise Athanasius, we praise virtue." Indeed he was a model of virtue, since this is the fruit of true communion with the living Triune God.

His memory is celebrated on January 18th together with Saint Cyril of Alexandria, and on May 2nd (the day of his repose).

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΣ Ο ΜΕΓΑΣ", January 1997. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Two Miracles of St. Athanasius the Great in Kerkyra

Sts. Athanasius and Spyridon banish the plague. This plague struck Kerkyra in 1629-1630. Fresco probably from the 17th century at Upper Korakiana, Kerkyra in the Church of Saint Athanasius.

St. Athanasius saves a child on the walls of the old city of Kerkyra. St. Athanasius was the patron saint of Kerkyra until 1456, when the relic of St. Spyridon came to the island. Fresco at Dukadon, Kerkyra in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos Mesochoritissis.

Source

Panegyric to St. Athanasius the Great by St. Gregory the Theologian

"To praise Athanasius is to praise virtue... To speak of and admire him fully, would perhaps be too long a task for the present purpose of my discourse, and would take the form of a history rather than of a panegyric: a history which it has been the object of my desires to commit to writing for the pleasure and instruction of posterity, as he himself wrote the life of the divine Anthony, and set forth, in the form of a narrative, the laws of the monastic life. Accordingly, after entering into a few of the many details of his history, such as memory suggests at the moment as most noteworthy, in order both to satisfy my own longing and fulfil the duty which befits the festival, we will leave the many others to those who know them. For indeed, it is neither pious nor safe, while the lives of the ungodly are honoured by recollection, to pass by in silence those who have lived piously, especially in a city which could hardly be saved by many examples of virtue, making sport, as it does, of Divine things, no less than of the horse-race and the theatre."

- St. Gregory the Theologian on St. Athanasius the Great

Read the entire Panegyric to St. Athanasius here.