In the year 362, the aging bishop of Alexandria was on the run, possibly for his life. The pagan emperor Julian, who had reversed his banishment earlier that year, was outraged that the Christian bishop opposed his pagan gods as staunchly as he opposed the Arians. So, Julian sent soldiers to capture Athanasius. The bishop fled by boat up the Nile River, and the emperor’s men were in hot pursuit.

But the God whom Athanasius had followed and preached for four decades had one ace up his sleeve, which would preserve his servant’s life: Julian’s soldiers did not know what Athanasius looked like. This was remarkable because everyone else in Egypt did; Bishop Athanasius was the most popular figure in the Roman province. But now, he was on the run, and anyone could identify him to the authorities.

Julian’s soldiers overtook another boat traveling up the Nile. They spotted a dark-skinned, elderly Coptic man on board. “How far off is Athanasius?” they asked. “Not far,” the man, who was Athanasius himself, replied. This was quite true. He was very close to them indeed. But the soldiers mistook him to mean that they should find Athanasius if they passed the slower boat and redoubled their pursuit. And so the hunters missed their prey, and Athanasius escaped from Julian’s clutches to the protection of the desert monks, where he sheltered for 15 months until it was safe to return.

This is one of the more cinematic moments in the life of Athanasius, who lived what might be the most dramatic life in the tumultuous fourth century. Athanasius served as bishop for 45 years, during which he endured five exiles under four emperors totaling 17 years. Athanasius endured such persecution because, in the half century following the Council of Nicaea (325), he stood resolutely for the truth of its famous creed, even when it meant that he stood alone.

Arius and Nicaea

Athanasius came to church leadership on the battlefield of the Arian controversy. Arius, an elder in Alexandria, began teaching that the Son of God had a beginning (“there was a time when the Son was not”), making him less eternal than the Father. Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria (yes, that’s confusing), opposed Arius (“always Father, always Son”) and had Arius’s teaching condemned at a synod in Alexandria in 321. At the time, Athanasius was merely a deacon, an aide to Alexander, but he played a supporting role in drafting Alexander’s refutation to Arius.

But this verdict was not the end of the controversy. Arius solicited support throughout the empire and found a backer in Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, a politically influential town near Constantinople. The theological controversy soon threatened to tear asunder the church’s unity. Emperor Constantine, Rome’s first emperor to profess belief in Christ, saw this theological disunity as a potential precursor to political disunity, so he called a general council to adjudicate the Arian controversy.

The result of the Council of Nicaea (325) was an early version of the Nicene Creed, a doctrinal statement affirming the trinitarian God of the Bible, with particular emphasis on the full divinity of the Son. In the critical phrase, the Nicene Creed affirms that the Son is “of the same essence (or substance) as the Father.” This ruled out the Arian position that the Son was “of like essence to the Father.”

Emperor Constantine did play a role in the council. He chaired some sessions and even pressed for the late addition of the critical phrase “of the same essence.” But he did not stage-manage or manipulate the outcome, as some modern pop fiction alleges. As will be seen, Constantine cared more for the unity of the church than for theological nuance. Since he had made Christianity the state religion, church unity was not much different than political unity.

Athanasius was also present at the Council of Nicaea, but he also did not play a leading role. The council was comprised of hundreds of bishops, mostly from the eastern empire. Athanasius accompanied Bishop Alexander to assist him, but he was not himself a bishop. However, in the years that followed, Athanasius would emerge as Nicaea’s staunchest defender.

Tumultuous Aftermath

Another misconception about the Council of Nicaea was that its theological outcome set Christian orthodoxy and imperial policy. This was true at first, but the Nicene Creed quickly faced widespread opposition. Bishops who had not attended were reluctant to accept it, and many churchmen who held Arian beliefs found ways to rationalize signing it. Even Arius eventually signed it. Constantine was glad to see this apparent reconciliation and wanted churches to welcome Arians back into the fold.

Meanwhile, Bishop Alexander had died in 328, and the church in Alexandria selected Athanasius to succeed him. In this role, Athanasius oversaw all Christian churches in Egypt and Libya, and he used his authority to completely stamp out Arian teaching in these provinces. Athanasius has matured amid the Arian controversy, had been present at Nicaea, and he was not about to welcome Arians back into fellowship whatever the emperor said. “The heresy which attacks Christ has no communion with the catholic church,” he wrote.

Those in leadership positions often face greater opposition and criticism, and Athanasius was no exception. Not only did he face opposition from Arian sympathizers, but he also faced opposition from the Melitians, a strict sect that refused even to admit Christians back into fellowship who had recanted under persecution. One might say that Athanasius faced opponents on both the Left and the Right.

Together these disparate factions accused Athanasius of heinous crimes, which resulted in him standing trial before Constantine in 331. Athanasius put on a spectacular defense: when accused of murdering a bishop and cutting off his hand to use for witchcraft, Athanasius somehow managed to produce the bishop with all his extremities still attached. Nevertheless, for refusing to admit Arians back into the church — and for threatening a labor strike among Alexandrian dock workers if Arian reintegration was forced — Emperor Constantine banished Athanasius in 336 from his flock in Alexandria to the frontier outpost of Trier, near modern Luxembourg.

Thus, the emperor who called the Council of Nicaea was the first to send Nicaea’s staunchest defender into exile.

However, Constantine died two years later and divided his empire among his three sons. Constantine II, who inherited Gaul and Africa, allowed Athanasius to return home in 338.

But now, the divided Roman Empire was thrown into both religious and political turmoil. Constantius, who now ruled the empire’s Asian territories and Egypt, promoted Arianism. In 339, he exiled Athanasius again, this time to Rome. Constans, who promoted Nicene orthodoxy, ruled over Italy and Illyricum (in the Balkans). Eventually, Constans threatened to go to war against Constantius if he did not allow Athanasius to return, which Athanasius did in 346.

In 350, Constans was assassinated, which enabled Constantius to move against Athanasius once again. Soldiers entered Athanasius’s church during a crowded Thursday night prayer service in preparation for Communion the next day. Athanasius ordered the prayers to proceed while all the congregants filed out. Finally, he himself was whisked out in the confusion, and he remained in hiding on the outskirts of Alexandria for another six years.

Constantius was succeeded in 361 by Julian, who attempted to reimpose paganism in the Roman Empire. He initially reinstated Athanasius as an opponent of Arianism — now out of favor — but soon he found cause to exile Athanasius also (as explained above). Julian’s reign lasted only two years, as did his successor Jovian. After him came Emperor Valens, who attempted to restore Arianism in the eastern empire, which meant trying to exile Athanasius again. Athanasius went into hiding again, but this last, weakest attempt at exile lasted only a few months before the emperor called it off. There were too many external security concerns to create another one by persecuting the beloved bishop of Alexandria.

Death, Triumph, and Legacy

Valens died in 378 fighting a barbarian army of Goths and Huns at Adrianople. He was the last Arian emperor in the east, and his successor Theodosius I called the Council of Constantinople (381) that reaffirmed and expanded upon the Nicene Creed. But Athanasius did not live to see the triumph of his labors. He died in 373, remaining faithful to the last in the faith he defended against four emperors — most of whom claimed to be Christians.

Athanasius’s labors were not in vain. His years in exile gave the pastor reprieves from “the daily pressure” of “anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). He spent these years writing numerous books, including a biography of the famous desert monk Antony and a work on the deity of the Holy Spirit, which informed the theological debates of the next generation.

The second exile in Rome was especially significant because such contact between the major bishops (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople) was increasingly rare. However, as a result of Athanasius’s seven years in Rome, the Roman church recognized the canonicity of Hebrews, and Athanasius recognized the canonicity of Revelation. Upon his return, Athanasius published a letter recognizing for the first time the 27-book canon of the New Testament that came to be accepted as final. “In these alone the teaching of godliness is proclaimed,” he wrote. “No one may add to them, and nothing may be taken away from them.”

It was this commitment to God’s word that gave Athanasius strength to stand amid overwhelming trials. In a memorial sermon years after his passing, Bishop Gregory Nazianzus reflected, “He was brought up, from the first, in religious habits and practices. … From meditating on every book of the Old and New Testament, with a depth such as none else has applied even to one of them, he grew rich in contemplation, rich in splendor of life.”

“He is … surrounded by an atmosphere of truth,” wrote Archibald Robertson, who later edited Athanasius’s works. “Not a single miracle of any kind is related of him. … The saintly reputation of Athanasius rested on his life and character alone, without the aid of any reputation for miraculous power.” That life and character was devoted wholeheartedly to the truth of Nicene theology, and to the source of that truth, God’s inspired word.