History records the expression, Athanasius contra mundum — Athanasius against the world. These words aptly express the situation in the fourth-century church when heresy almost reigned supreme — save Athanasius, a bishop who was a persistent and staunch defender of the faith. Athanasius was born into a Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt, in 295 A.D. In his early twenties he was ordained and entered the service of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. He accompanied the bishop to the first ecumenical council of the church at Nicaea in 325 when, among other matters, the heresy of Arianism, which promoted the idea that Jesus was not God, was first condemned.

In 326, Alexander died and two years later Athanasius was selected to be the new bishop of Alexandria. It was at this time that his caree…