Saint of the Day, May 2

Saint Athanasius (c. 296–373), patriarch of Alexandria, was the indomitable defender of the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy that for half a century all but captured the imperial church. Present at Nicaea as a young deacon, he spent forty-five years on the throne of Mark — seventeen of them in five separate exiles — refusing to compromise the homoousios. His Life of Antony made monasticism known to the Latin West and converted, among others, Augustine. His Festal Letter of 367 is the earliest list to enumerate exactly the twenty-seven books of the New Testament canon. He is a Doctor of the Church in both East and West.