#177 - St. Athanasius of Alexandria

About this episode

This episode discusses the life and contributions of St. Athanasius, a key figure in the early church and his battles against Arianism.

On May 2nd, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. Athanasius - Bishop and Doctor of the Church. Born in the late 200s in Alexandria - one of the major hubs of Christianity. While we remember St. Athanasius as a hero of the early church, he had lots of enemies in his day, who sent him into exile on five different occasions. We often think that the First Council of Nicaea did away with the Arianism, but as you’ll learn in this episode, it was church fathers like St. Athanasius that fought Arianism in the trenches. SOCIAL LINKS * Follow Why Catholic on Instagram. * Subscribe to Why Catholic on YouTube. * Follow Justin on Facebook. SHOW NOTES * Episode 147: The World that Led to the Council of Nicaea * Episode 148: The First Council of Nicaea (325) * Episode 149: From Nicaea to Constantinople * Episode 150: The First Council of Constantinople (381) Get full access to Why Catholic? at whycatholic.substack.com/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: Justin Hibbard

Topics covered

• St. Athanasius
• Catholic Church
• Arianism
• First Council of Nicaea
• Christianity
• early church history

Keywords

• St. Athanasius
• Catholic Church
• Arianism
• First Council of Nicaea
• Christianity
• Bishop
• Doctor of the Church

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Catholic Church

Places: Alexandria

More episodes of Why Catholic?

• #184 - Orient Yourself to the Mass · June 10, 2026 · 21 min
• #183 - The Jewish Roots of the Mass · June 2, 2026 · 19 min
• #182 - Reimagining the Mass · May 26, 2026 · 19 min
• #181 - Why Catholic and Not Eastern Orthodox? · May 19, 2026 · 30 min
• #180 - The Ascension · May 17, 2026 · 16 min
• #179 - 2027 Pilgrimage to France with Fr. Kenneth Parsad · May 12, 2026 · 42 min