Athanasius and Mary

MARIAN CREED AFTER THE MANNER OF THAT OF ST. ATHANASIUS

Whoever wishes to be saved, before all must hold a firm faith as to Mary. Which unless anyone shall keep whole and inviolate: without doubt he shall perish forever. For she alone, remaining a virgin, hath brought forth: she alone hath destroyed all heresies. Let the Jew be confounded and ashamed: who says that Christ was born from the seed of Joseph. Let the Manichean be confounded who says: that Christ has an unreal body. Let all be ashamed who say: that He derives His Body from any other source than Mary. For the very same Son, who is the only-begotten of the Father in the Godhead: is the true and only begotten Son of the Virgin Mary. In Heaven without a mother: on earth without a father. For as the rational soul and the flesh because of the union in man is truly born from man: so Christ, both God and Man, is truly begotten by Mary, the Virgin. Clothing Himself with flesh from the flesh of the Virgin: because so it behooved the human race to be redeemed. Who according to the Divinity is equal to the Father: but according to His Humanity is less than the Father. Conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and announced by the Angel: but nevertheless the Holy Spirit is not His Father. Begotten in the world of the Virgin Mary without pain of the flesh: because He was conceived without carnal delight. Whom the Mother hath fed with her milk: her breast full of heaven. Whom the Angels surrounded as attendants at birth: announcing great joy to the shepherds. He it is who was adored by the Magi with gifts, who fled from Herod into Egypt, who was baptized by John in the Jordan: was betrayed, seized, scourged, crucified, dead, and buried. Who rose again with glory: and ascended into Heaven. Who sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples: and upon His Mother. Whom He in the end took up into Heaven: where she sitteth at the right hand of her Son, never ceasing to make intercession for us. This is the faith of the Virgin Mary: which, unless anyone faithfully and firmly believes, he cannot be saved.
St. Athanasius

FEAST DAY: MAY 2ND

St. Athanasius, the great champion of the Faith was born at Alexandria, about the year 296, of Christian parents. Educated under the eye of Alexander, later Bishop of his native city, he made great progress in learning and virtue. In 313, Alexander succeeded Achillas in the Patriarchal See, and two years later St. Athanasius went to the desert to spend some time in retreat with St. Anthony.

In 319, he became a deacon, and even in this capacity he was called upon to take an active part against the rising heresy of Arius, an ambitious priest of the Alexandrian Church who denied the Divinity of Christ. This was to be the life struggle of St. Athanasius.

In 325, he assisted his Bishop at the Council of Nicaea, where his influence began to be felt. Five months later Alexander died. On his death bed he recommended St. Athanasius as his successor. In consequence of this, Athanasius was unanimously elected Patriarch in 326.

His refusal to tolerate the Arian heresy was the cause of many trials and persecutions for St. Athanasius. He spent seventeen of the forty-six years of his episcopate in exile. After a life of virtue and suffering, this intrepid champion of the Catholic Faith, the greatest man of his time, died in peace on May 2, 373. St. Athanasius was a Bishop and Doctor of the Church.