ATHANASIUS, bishop of ANCIRA. - He was consecrated by Acacius of Caesarea in Palestine, leader of the Homœans, successor of Basil of Ancira, leader of the Homœusians, exiled by the emperor Constantius after the Council of Constantinople in January 360. A. had not compromised himself in the preceding controversies and remained a supporter of the “consubstantial.” He was represented at the Council of Antioch in 363 and took part in person in that of Tyana in Cappadocia in 367. He was on good terms with St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Gregory of Nyssa. Of the former, three letters survive: to A., to his father, and to the Church of Ancira, on the occasion of A.’s death (Epp. 24, 25, 29); of the latter, the splendid eulogy of A., “vir cui veritate nihil fuit antiquius” (Contra Eunom., lib. 1: PG 45, 259-60).
ATANASIO VESCOVO DI ANCIRA
BIBL.: G. Levenq, s.V. in DHG, IV, cols. 1351-52; G. Bardy, in Storia della Chiesa, ed. by A. Fliche and V. MARTINO G, Italian trans. Fratelli, Turin [1940], pp. 175, 253, 258.