Posted from Crossroads, Eastern Prelacy E-Newsletter
On Saturday, January 22, 2011, the Armenian Church remembers the Holy Fathers Athanasius and Cyril.
Athanasius was a bishop and doctor of the church. He was born and died in Alexandria. While a deacon, he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he was a strong opponent of Arianism. He served as Bishop of Alexandria for 46 years; about 17 of those years were spent in exile because of disagreements with the emperor. Much of his writings have survived, as well as some of his letters. Athanasius in one of the four great Greek doctors of the church, along with Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzus.
Cyril of Alexandria was a father and doctor of the church, born in Alexandria and nephew of the patriarch of that city. He presided over the third Ecumenical Council at
Ephesus. He wrote treatises that clarified the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. He was a brilliant theologian of the Alexandrian tradition and highly revered by the Church of Armenia.