Saint Athanasius, Defender of the Faith

I finished another book yesterday, this one a Christmas present entitled Saint Athanasius, Defender of the Faith: A Life from the 4th Century for the Church of Today by the late Michael Davies. It's really more of a pamphlet than a book at only 84 pages. The booklet is little more than a very short biography of the life of St. Athanasius; it's interest lies in the parallel that the author suggests, although he does not argue for it, between St. Athanasius in the crisis of the 4th century and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the crisis of the late 20th century: "The saint and the archbishop both acted outside the normal hierarchical structures in order to uphold what they maintained was authentic Catholic tradition, both were supported by a remnant of the faithful laity, both were repudiated by almost all their fellow bishops, and both underwent the agony of being excommunicated by the pope of their day."

I have to admit to being mostly ignorant of the circumstances that led up to the late archbishop's episcopal consecrations and subsequent excommunication in 1988. I find the parallels to St. Athanasius intriguing though; perhaps the whole situation with the Society of St. Pius X merits further study and consideration in this light.