Athanasios of Alexandria

Archbishop of Alexandria, defender of the Nicene faith.

St. Athanasios the Great was Archbishop of Alexandria in the fourth century and the foremost defender of the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy. Present at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea as a young deacon, he spent the rest of his life upholding the Nicene faith, enduring five exiles rather than yield.

His writings, including On the Incarnation and the Life of St. Anthony, shaped the faith and the monasticism of the whole Church. He reposed in 373. The Church commemorates him on January 18 together with St. Cyril, and on May 2 the return of his relics.

Feast day

On the New Calendar, Athanasios of Alexandria is commemorated on May 2. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on May 15 of the civil calendar.

Who celebrates a name day

People with these names keep their name day on this feast:

Athanasios, Thanassis, Thanos, Nasis, Athanasius

Also commemorated on May 2

• Hesperos and Zoe with their sons Kyriakos and Theodoulos

  Martyr, Έσπερος, Ζωή, Κυριάκος και Θεόδουλος

  Holy Martyrs Hesperos, Zoe and their children Kyriakos and Theodoulos, a Christian slave family martyred at Attalia.

  Name days: Hesperos, Esperos, Theodoulos, Theodulus, Zoe, Zoi, Zoey

• Matrona of Moscow

  Holy Woman, Ματρώνα η Μοσχοβίτισσα

  Blessed Matrona of Moscow, the blind ascetic and counselor of twentieth-century Russia.

  Name days: Matrona

• Boris the Baptizer of Bulgaria

  Apostle, Βόρις-Μιχαήλ ο Ισαπόστολος

  Saint Boris, in baptism Michael, Prince of Bulgaria and Equal-to-the-Apostles, who brought his people to Christ.

  Name days: Boris

• Basil the Blessed of Moscow

  Venerable, Βασίλειος ο διά Χριστόν Σαλός

  Blessed Basil, Fool-for-Christ of Moscow, who walked barefoot through the city and rebuked even the Tsar.

• Jordan the Wonderworker

  Venerable, Ιορδάνης ο Θαυματουργός

  Venerable Jordan the Wonderworker, an ascetic remembered in the Greek synaxarion.

  Name days: Iordanis, Jordan, Jordanis

Icon: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.