Saint Athanasius was born in Alexandria; his mother, like Anna, who brought her son Samuel to the temple of the Lord (1 Samuel 1:28), also brought him to St. Alexander, the patriarch of Alexandria, and gave him to the temple to serve God. And he began to spend his life at the temple, zealously fulfilling the commandments of God.
In 319, the patriarch ordained him deacon of the Church of Alexandria. Already at this time, St. Athanasius began to write essays. The future saint saw that the new arrivals to the Church of Christ did not have zeal, they did not have true piety, many of them sought glory for themselves, talked nonsense, talked idly, and transferred all the pagan customs that they had before into Christian life. A certain Arius appeared, who blasphemed Christ, humiliated the Mother of God and outraged the people, teaching the people to seek honor, glory, to penetrate into the Church, to attain the priesthood and even the episcopacy. And many listened to him and became followers of this heresy — Arians. And this heresy spread so much that it almost overwhelmed the whole Church — it was a great battle. In 325, St. Athanasius was at the Council of Nicaea, where he opposed Arius.
In 326, after the death of Patriarch Alexander, St. Athanasius was elected to the See of Alexandria. As bishop, Athanasius toured churches, spoke a lot, fought against the Arians, wrote, denounced them, and all untrue Christians rebelled against him and began to slander him. At that time, Constantine the Great reigned (306-337), he was considered the patron saint of the Church of Christ. He understood military strategy, diplomacy, and state affairs well, but he did not know church affairs and the preaching of the Gospel, so he hesitated between Arianism and Orthodoxy.
Taking advantage of the emperor's kindness and simplicity, heretics surrounded his entire court, penetrated into all offices and began to whisper heresies and untruths and introduce schisms. They accused Archbishop Athanasius that he was a bad man, that he did not obey the tsar, collected taxes separately from the royal treasury and committed bad deeds, that he was a magician, a criminal, and a fornicator. The emperor saw great strife, enmity, tried to establish peace, but there were times when war could open up, then he offered St. Athanasius to retire somewhere for a while. And the saint spent most of his long reign in exile, and then he often enjoyed the support of the monks, was in friendship with both fathers of monasticism — Saints Anthony and Pachomius.
In particular, heretics and evil people tried to accuse Saint Athanasius of not listening to the emperor's commands, not paying attention to his prescriptions, not accepting Arius into church communion, that he was a sorcerer and a sorcerer, being obvious sorcerers themselves, and that through some dead hand, allegedly belonging to the cleric Arseny, he creates enchantments. The Emperor ordered an investigation. Arseny was a cleric, a reader, having committed some kind of offense, he hid for a long time, and when the rumor about it began to spread everywhere, he showed a sense of truth and justice, because St. Athanasius of Christ was innocent, and Arseny himself was completely unharmed, his hand was not cut off, another person somewhere the judges found villains, although many of them were bishops. Condoling for his father and benefactor and grieving with his heart that the truth was lawlessly defeated by lies, he secretly came to Athanasius himself, falling at his honest feet. Blessed Athanasius, rejoicing at Arseny's arrival, ordered him not to show himself to anyone before the trial.
Meanwhile, the malicious hatred of Athanasius' opponents increased so much that they added another lie to one: they bribed a shameless woman to slander St. Athanasius, that he committed lawlessness with her. When the trial began, the judges sat down in their seats and the slanderers appeared, and this woman was introduced. Weeping, she complained for a long time about the saint, whom she had never seen, and did not even know what he looked like. Everyone listened in disbelief. And she did not want to know the piety of the gospel, rejoicing that they had given her a lot of money. At that time, Athanasius' friend, Presbyter Timothy, standing with him outside the door and hearing everything, was indignant in spirit and, unexpectedly entering the court, hurriedly stood before the eyes of that slanderer, as if he were Athanasius himself; he boldly addressed her: "Did I commit violence against you at night, as you say?" And she even more shamelessly cried out to the judges, "This, this man is my molester and an attacker against my purity; he..." The judges laughed when they saw the meanness, the comedy played out and drove her away. But the opponents of St. Athanasius, although ashamed, did not calm down and began to accuse him of murdering Arseny, showing some kind of terrible-looking dead hand. Saint Athanasius listened to them patiently and was silent, then asked: "Are there any of you who knew Arseny well? Which one of you can confirm if this is really his hand?" And most of the unrighteous judges rose up, jumped up and began to assert that this was indeed Arseny's hand. And then, when they showed their dirty hearts and their deceit, the saint pulled back the curtain behind which Arseny was standing, brought him out in front of the assembly and asked: "And who is this standing in front of you? You said that Arseny is dead, this is his hand." And everyone was horrified. "Here, men, and Arseny!  Saint Athanasius announced. — Here are his hands, which were not cut off at all! Show your Arseny, too, if you have one, and tell me to whom the severed hand belongs, which condemns you yourself as having committed this crime." But the judges continued to hold court, exhausting all their slander. And St. Athanasius, unable to bear the injustice committed, testified aloud to the whole council: " The truth has faded, the truth has been trampled, justice has died, legitimate investigation and careful consideration of cases have disappeared from judges! Is it lawful for those who wish to justify themselves to be kept in bonds, and the trial of the whole case would be entrusted to slanderers and enemies, and for the negotiators themselves to judge the one they slander?" The saint was acquitted by the emperor and sent to his Alexandrian pulpit.
When Constantine the Great died and his second son Constantius took over the throne, the entire imperial court sided with the Arians. They began to persecute Orthodox Christians, to exile bishops, to place on the thrones wicked people, treacherous, fornicators, heretics who did not recognize Jesus Christ as God. And St. Athanasius had to flee to Rome, where he stayed for three years.
Then the Lord judged everything with His judgment: Arius and the heretics were punished, and the wicked king died. After him, Julian the Apostate reigned for two years, followed by Jovinian the pious, then Valens, who, although he did a lot of evil to the Church, but, fearing the rebellion of the Alexandrians, allowed St. Athanasius to return and fearlessly rule the Alexandrian Church. And it is described in the life of St. Athanasius that the last time of his life he lived in peace and tranquility, rested in the Lord on May 2, 373 at the age of 76.
For 46 years, St. Athanasius was bishop of the city of Alexandria and was expelled from the pulpit many times and returned back, because Arians, calling themselves Christians, believers in the Gospel, sought and invented guilt in order to condemn and put to death the saint. And the Lord, proclaiming the Gospel, did not preach to kill his enemies; these same villains pretended to be baptized, Christianity and believed without piety.