The Orthodox Church honors St. Athanasius of Alexandria on the day of his death on May 2 and on January 18, together with Cyril of Alexandria, who lived in slightly later times. Among the Bulgarian people, however, it is January 18 that is known as Athanasius' Day, one of the greatest winter holidays.
Saint Athanasius was born in 296 in the city of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt at that time and a large seaport. At the beginning of the fourth century, Christianity had already spread throughout the lands of the entire Roman Empire, which means all the lands along the Mediterranean, as well as beyond its borders. With so many different peoples from all over this space of North Africa, Syria and Palestine, Asia Minor, the Balkans and further Scythia, Illyria and Pannonia, Germany, Gaul, the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas, etc. It is not surprising that there are different interpretations on important issues related to faith.
The discussion of these issues matured at the beginning of the fourth century, when after three centuries, Christianity was already recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This recognition of Christianity as an official religion (but not yet a state religion) took place with two edicts - Serdica (Sofia) of 311 and Milan (Milan) of 313.
Under Emperor Constantine I (306-337), a council of church fathers from all over the empire was convened to clarify issues of faith. These issues concerned more the eastern provinces from where Christianity initially originated and spread. The council was held in the city of Nicaea (today Iznik) near the Sea of Marmara and the capital Constantinople (today Istanbul) in 325 and was attended by 318 fathers.
At that time, St. Athanasius was already about thirty years old. He attended the council together with the then Archbishop of Alexandria, Alexander, whose place he succeeded a little later. It was in Alexandria that the local priest Arius began his sermons, whose teachings led to the need to consider important issues in Orthodoxy. Athanasius's activities at the First Ecumenical Council so glorified him that after the long council he returned to Alexandria as a famous theologian, who soon took up the archiepiscopal chair. However, the disputes between the different theological movements in these early years in the establishment of Christianity led to Athanasius's several exiles to the western lands of the empire. Emperor Constantine himself, fearing rebellions in Alexandria, sent Athanasius to Gaul (present-day France), where he stayed for two years before returning. Of the 47 years of his episcopal ministry, St. Athanasius spent 15 in exile. His main dogmatic works are "Four Discourses Against the Arians" (356-359), dedicated to affirming the divinity of the Savior Jesus Christ. Numerous commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, books of a moralizing nature, and sermons are also attributed to him.
The activity of St. Athanasius of Alexandria is also connected with the Bulgarian lands. According to legend, during his participation in the council in Serdica (present-day Sofia) in 343/344, he passed through the place where the monastery of St. Athanasius was built a little later. At this place, on the main road from Constantinople to Serdica, on the hill above the present-day village of Zlatna Livada, there was a beautiful place with healing water. According to tradition, it was St. Athanasius who founded a monastery here, which is why the monastery itself claims to be the oldest in the Balkans.
Although the Council of Serdica in 343/344 was similar in scale to the one in Nicaea in 325 and began as an ecumenical council, it ended as a canon-making council, but was not recognized as ecumenical. The council was convened by Constans (333 -350) and Constantius (337 -361), the sons of Constantine the Great. These first ecumenical councils, attended by some of the most educated and wise people of their time, where important issues related to the Orthodox faith were decided, rules were created, and had a wide resonance among the population.
In Bulgarian folklore, several versions of a song have been preserved in which it is sung about Tsar Kostadin and three hundred priests who read a "white book" written with "black words and red". Despite their attempts to read this book written in letters, these three hundred priests are unable to do so. Or as the song sings: "So three hundred priests came, and read a white book, a white book, a black word, a black word and red, they could not read a white book, a black word, a black word and red." This song has nothing else to reflect except the significant event of the First Ecumenical Council held under Emperor Constantine the Great, in which about 300 church fathers (priests) actually participated, or the one held in Serdica twenty years later during the reign of his sons Constans and Constantius. These councils were accompanied by many theological and purely scientific disputes, which found their solution only after prolonged discussions, division and even some coercion. This song about Tsar Kostadin (Constantine or Constantius and Constans), who called three hundred priests to read a "white book", among other memories of distant times, once again raises the question of the antiquity of the population of these lands and of its real participation in important events for the history of the church and state.
Saint Athanasius died in Alexandria at the age of 76 in 373. On icons he is depicted as a white-haired and white-bearded sage, which indicates a considerable age to which not many holy men live.