Why St. Athanasius?

Many people have asked us, "why is your home learning adventure called St. Athanasius Academy?"

Eight years ago, when we were looking at moving to Austria so dh could get a Masters in Theological Studies (which he's now using to teach at the new John Paul the Great Catholic High School), we began looking at home-educating the older two, Brikhead and Kotch. They were in Catholic parochial school, but not knowing what we'd find in Austria, we looked to home school them.

As we read book after book on Catholic homeschooling and Christian world-view homeschooling and secular books on homeschooling, we became more and more enamored of the idea of steeping the children's day in Catholic teaching while also giving them all the subjects of traditional school. We read more and more about education and began to get involved with online home-education communities.

At the same time, dh was applying to the Masters program in a small village in Austria. He needed to write a divisio textus on a sermon by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. He and I became enamored of this 4th century bishop who fought against security, fame and fortune for the Catholic faith -- being exiled at least three times for his defense of the Catholic faith against the Arian heresy . He did what was right. We decided then and there to place dh's application, our move to Austria and our homeschool, under the patronage of one of the greatest defenders of the Catholic faith.

Eight years later, as we start out seventh year of "living, loving and learning in the home" we again place our school under St. Athanasius' patronage -- asking him to intercede on our behalf, helping us to be good defenders of the Faith, and (most importantly) helping me to raise the now younger crew steeped in the Faith.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Pray for US!

Feast: St. Athanasius

Yipppppeeee, it's the Feast Day of our Patron Saint (and it's a Friday, what could be better)! Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria. Due to his opposition to the Arian heresy, he spent much of his life in exile. He was a champion of belief in the Divinity of Christ and wrote extensively on Christ's dual-nature both from exile and in Alexandra. He was named a Doctor of the Church.

By the way, he's our patron because dh had to write a paper on one of his treatises for acceptance to the Austrian program which is what pushed us to embark on our home-learning adventure with our then 5th and 7th graders (who had been in parochial schools before we went).

Here's a quote from the great man:

The corruption of death no longer holds any power over mankind, thanks to the Word, who has come to dwell among us through his one
body.

– St. Athanasius

Now, off to figure out what we can have for dinner to celebrate!

St. Athanasius of Alexandria, please pray for us!

Today is Our Feast Day

Now, this is one cool saint -- and the patron of our home learning experiences! Here's a guy who tried for YEARS to refute the Arian Heresy -- the one that says Jesus wasn't divine just a really nice guy. He was exiled FIVE times by different emperors who didn't agree -- but God and Athanasius prevailed and he died after 47 years of being Bishop of Alexandria.

So, we've read about his life today and discussed why he's our patron (a long story for another post!). We've decided on our menu for dinner -- which was hard as none of our traditional "saints + food" sites had anything for Athanasius. So being the ever-clever, closet-librarian, I researched Mid-east (primarily Egyptian) recipes and found a really cool site dedicated to Egyptian recipes . So we're having hummus and pita chips, cucumber and yogurt salad, thinly sliced cold beef and the piece de resistance: Granitat-al-Lamun!

St. Athanasius, ceaseless defender of the faith and Doctor of the Catholic Church,

PRAY FOR US!