Ascension

Ascension Day commemorates Christ's bodily ascension into heaven forty days after the Resurrection (Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:50-53). The feast always falls on a Thursday — forty days counted inclusively from Easter Sunday. The observance is ancient. Augustine of Hippo (Ep. 54 to Januarius, c. 400) already regarded the Ascension as a feast of apostolic origin, placing it alongside Easter and Pentecost as celebrations 'which the whole Church observes throughout the world.' Eusebius of Caesarea mentions it in the early fourth century. The Ascension stands as the christological complement to the Incarnation: at Christmas, God descends to take human nature; at the Ascension, human nature is taken up into the life of God. The theological implications are enormous — our flesh, our humanity, is now at the right hand of the Father. The BCP 2019 lists Ascension among the seven Principal Feasts, giving it the highest possible liturgical precedence. The ten days between Ascension and Pentecost have traditionally been kept as days of prayer and expectation, recalling the disciples' waiting in the upper room (Acts 1:12-14). Some Anglican and Roman churches transfer the observance to the following Sunday, though the BCP 2019 does not explicitly authorize this practice.

The Ascension has shaped both the liturgical calendar and Christian architecture. The tradition of extinguishing the Paschal Candle after the Gospel reading on Ascension Day — symbolizing Christ's departure from visible presence — was widespread in the medieval West, though modern practice varies. Egeria records a vigil service at the Imbomon (the traditional site of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives) in the 380s, and the feast was well established in both East and West by the fifth century. In the Byzantine tradition, the Ascension is one of the Twelve Great Feasts, and its icon — Christ ascending in a mandorla of glory while the apostles gaze upward and angels announce his return — is among the most theologically rich in the Eastern iconographic tradition. The two men in white (Acts 1:10-11) who promise Christ's return connect the Ascension forward to the Second Coming, making it both a feast of accomplished salvation and eschatological hope. The collect in the BCP 2019 focuses on the ascent of hearts and minds: 'May our hearts and minds also there ascend, and with him continually dwell.' The season between Ascension and Pentecost — sometimes called the 'Great Novena' — is a period of prayer for the coming of the Spirit.

Athanasius was born around 296 in Alexandria, Egypt, into a Christian family. He received an excellent classical education and entered the service of the Alexandrian church as a deacon under Bishop Alexander. During the First Council of Nicaea in 325 — where Athanasius was present as a young attendant — the council condemned the Arian heresy and affirmed the homoousios (the Son's full and essential divinity). This decision became the cornerstone of Athanasius's entire life.

When Alexander died in 328, Athanasius was elected bishop of Alexandria, the most influential episcopal see in the Christian East. Almost immediately he faced the political and theological challenge of resurgent Arianism, which had imperial support under Constantine's son Constantius II. Unlike other bishops who compromised or shifted their positions under imperial pressure, Athanasius refused. Over the next 46 years, he was exiled five times — first in 335 to Trier in Gaul, then to Rome (346–349), then to the Egyptian desert three times (356–362, 365–366, 370–373).

During his exiles, Athanasius was extraordinarily productive. He wrote extensively in defense of Nicene theology: Against the Arians (a detailed refutation of Arian logic), On the Incarnation (arguing that God became human so that humans might become divine — *theosis*), and 39 Festal Letters that served as his annual pastoral communications to the Egyptian churches and became a primary source for the early liturgical calendar.

Athanasius was also a passionate supporter of monasticism. His Life of Antony, written shortly after the famous desert father's death, became the foundation text of monastic biography and inspired the explosive growth of Egyptian monasticism that would reshape Christendom. In his writings, Athanasius presented the monastic life not as escapism but as a powerful witness to Christ's victory over death and the material world's ultimate redemption.

After the death of Constantius II in 361, Athanasius briefly returned to Alexandria. When the pagan emperor Julian (r. 361–363) briefly restored paganism as the imperial religion, Athanasius again went into hiding — this time not persecuted by the emperor for heresy, but because his presence as a Christian bishop symbolized Nicene Christianity's refusal to die. He remained in hiding in the Egyptian desert, supported by monks and ordinary faithful, until Julian's death.

Athanasius was finally able to spend his last years in relative peace in Alexandria, where he died on May 2, 373. His opponents called him *Athanasius contra mundum* — Athanasius against the world — meaning that he stood alone against imperial pressure, conciliar compromise, and theological confusion. That opposition became his glory, and it secured the victory of Nicene orthodoxy that would be definitively ratified at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

Traditionally, Athanasius's constancy in faith during his exiles was attributed to divine strengthening. According to Socrates, when Athanasius was hiding in the desert during the reign of Julian, he was miraculously sustained and protected by monks and local Christians who remained loyal to his teaching. The story of his five exiles came to symbolize the Church's victory over imperial persecution — each exile was meant to silence him, but each time he returned and vindication followed.