Aysor, Armenia
Jan 23 2010

Commemoration of Patriarchs St.Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria

Today the Armenian Apostolic Church is celebrating the Commemoration
day of Patriarchs St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria.
Patriarchs St. Athanasius and St. Cyril are among the most prominent
figures of the Universal Church, who devoted their lives to the
promulgation of the orthodoxy of Christianity, and the struggle
against false conceptions and erroneous teachings, informs the
information service of Araratyan Diocese.

St. Athanasius (295-373 A.D.) was born in Alexandria, to a Greek
Christian family. He received his higher education in the famous
Theological School of Alexandria. He was ordained to the diaconate by
Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria, and participated in the Ecumenical
Council of Nicea in 325, as the Patriarch’s personal secretary. During
the council he decisively defeated Arius and his followers who denied
the Divine nature of Christ and purported that He was a created being.
In his argument St. Athanasius stated the reality of Christ being God
and explained the salvation in combining the human nature of Jesus
with God, which is possible only through His incarnation. According to
the formulation of St. Athanasius, salvation is nothing else but
theosis ` being adopted by God. Athanasius stated that God became
incarnate, `so that sons of mortal men should become sons of God.’ In
328, St. Athanasius became Bishop of Alexandria. He continued to
struggle against Arianism and forcefully defended the Nicene Orthodox
teaching. Having been subjected to repeated persecutions, he spent 15
of his 47-year episcopal service in exile. His heroic efforts bore
fruit, and eight years following his death his teachings were adopted
by the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381. St. Athanasius
made very significant contributions to the development of monastic
life as well.

Patriarch St. Cyril of Alexandria is one of the brilliant
representatives of the Alexandrian Theological School. He was born in
380, and was the nephew of Patriarch Theophilus, whom he succeeded in
412. He struggled against Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople,
for the preservation of orthodox teaching. It was for this purpose
that Emperor Theodoros II convened the Third Ecumenical Council in
Ephesus, in 431. During the Council, Nestorius and his teachings were
criticized and condemned, and the formulation of `Theotokos’
(Birthgiver to God) was adopted by the Church as it related to St.
Mary. The famous formulation of St. Cyril: `The one incarnate nature
of God the Word’, has become the cornerstone of the Armenian Church
regarding the nature of Christ.