St Athanasius was a great defender of the faith against widespread heresy of Arianism, the doctrine that Jesus was not truly divine. He was Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt for 46 years and during that time he was exiled five times for his defence of Christ’s divinity. During one period he spent 10 years of relative peace which included reading, writing and promoting the Christian life. One of his writings The Life of St Anthony became very popular in the Western Christian World. St Athanasius died in 373 and became a Doctor of the Church in 1568.
