Five times in exile Given his great Marian devotion, it is fitting that St Athanasius’s feast day falls in May, the Virgin Mary’s month. The champion of orthodoxy was born in Alexandria in the year 296 and raised by Christian parents. He was ordained deacon at the age of 27 by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria. Athanasius was asked to take an active role in combating the heresy of Arius, an ambitious priest of the Alexandrian Church. He served as the bishop’s secretary at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. His intellectual gifts made a strong impression on those present. Five months after the council, Bishop Alexander died and on his deathbed recommended Athanasius as his successor. Athanasius was elected Patriarch in 326 by a unanimous vote. Athanasius’s refusal to accept the Arian heresy meant he faced many trials and persecutions during his life. His tenure as Patriarch of Alexandria lasted 46 years and he spent 17 of them in exile. He was exiled five times by four different Roman emperors. When he was exiled for a second time by Constantius II he went to Rome and was replaced by Gregory of Cappadocia as Patriarch of Alexandria. In 339/340 nearly 100 bishops met at Alexandria and expressed their support for Athanasius. Pope Julius I intervened, urging that Athanasius be reinstated. But his efforts were in vain. Julius called a synod in Rome in 340 to address the matter, which proclaimed Athanasius the rightful Bishop of Alexandria. But it was not until Gregory’s death in 345 that Athanasius was allowed to return. Venerated in Venice After a life of much tribulation, St Athanasius died peacefully on May 2, 373. He was buried in Alexandria, but his remains were later transferred to the Chiesa di San Zaccaria in Venice. In 1973 Pope Paul VI donated a relic of St Athanasius to the Coptic Orthodox Church. It is preserved under St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.