St. Alexander of Alexandria

St. Alexander of Alexandria was the patriarch of that great Egyptian see in the early fourth century and one of the earliest and most important defenders of the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy. When Arius, a priest of his own city, began to teach that the Son of God was a creature, made in time and not truly equal to the Father, Alexander patiently sought to correct him and, when he persisted, condemned his errors in a synod, upholding the eternal and consubstantial Sonship of the Word.

His firm stand helped to bring about the summoning of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, where the faith he championed was proclaimed in the Creed, and he had at his side his brilliant young deacon and future successor, St. Athanasius, who would carry on the same struggle for decades. Revered as a wise and holy shepherd, Alexander died soon after the council, around the year 328, and his memory is kept on 26 February.