Unexplained connection with saints

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Over the course of the past few months, I’ve found myself growing very close to a particular saint, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, who fought the Arian heresy. I have no idea why I feel such a connection with him, because he was a fourth-century bishop and I’m a twenty-first century college student. I didn’t even know too much about him when I started to feel this connection, but it has grown over time. First it was just a general sense of excitement on his feast day (in May). Then I read an article that mentioned him (in July) and felt a profound sense of respect for him, much more emotionally based than I’d felt for a saint before. Over the past few months, that respect has deepened into affection. I’m reading about him, trying to figure out why I feel such a connection with him, but I can’t figure it out. He’s obviously an awesome saint, but there are many awesome saints I don’t feel this way about, including saints who would seem to be more similar to me. Has this happened to anyone else?
For now, I’m assuming that he was praying for me, and that that’s why I felt such a connection to him. That does leave the interesting question of why he would be praying for me. I’m asking him to pray for me now, so even if he wasn’t praying for me before, he definitely is now.
 
Well, perhaps God has enlightened him as to a particular purpose for his prayers in your life. Maybe he had a particular grace that you will need in times to come.

Be thankful for this is a gift from Heaven that there is one so close to God interceding on your behalf.
 
Hey me too!

In the last few months, his name keeps popping up, and I find myself laughing about his personal history and story. He certainly seemed to be a very rough and tumble kinda guy.
 
When I was around 10 yrs. old I had a connection with St. Theresa. After my mother died, I found a poem that I had written to St. Theresa in my mother’s recipe box. She kept it all those years.
 
Here is the last paragraph of St. Athanasius (died 373) from "Our Sunday’s Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints, Revised, (2003) p 128.

“Athanasius is called ‘the Father of Orthodoxy,’ ‘the Pillar of the Church,’ and ‘Champion of Christ’s Divinity.’ His efforts at defeating Arianism helped lay the groundwork for the triumph of Orthodox Christianity at the Council of Constantinople in 381, years after Athanasius’ death. He did not compose the Athanasian Creed, but it was drawn from his writings. He is a Doctor of the Church and his most important theological writings include: Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione Verbi Dei. Feast Day: May 2.”

Maybe we are asked to prepare ourselves for another battle with forces who are against the Church. St. Athanasius, pray for us!

Fr. Bro.
 
Father Luke Dysinger, a Benedictine monk at St. Andrew’s Abbeyin Valyermo, CA is an expert on this particular saint. If you google “Luke Dysinger St. John’s Seminary” you can find his many pages of info on the desert fathers (he teaches at St. John’s Seminary). He is an excellent source.
 
Grace and Glory:
I have no idea why I feel such a connection with him, because he was a fourth-century bishop and I’m a twenty-first century college student.
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You have no idea? Are you serious? Are you Catholic? Are you familiar with the Apostles’ Creed?
 
get hold of St. Athanasius: On the Incarnation, and get a copy of the Athanasian Creed, it will blow you away.
 
St. Athanasius cropped up in my life some time ago as well, along with a conviction that God wanted me to work in the area of re-evangelisation of Catholics who don’t really know their Faith, which makes them sitting ducks for those looking to draw them out of the Church.

St. Athanasius battled against the Arian heresy at a time when half the bishops in the world had been led astray by it. He received support from the laity at a grassroots level. You could say that Athanasius and the faithful laity saved the Church from the heretical heirarchy.

He fought against powers and principalities. In the 4th century, those who opposed the Arian heresy were liable to be ‘excommunicated’ and ostracized from the ‘official’ structure of the Church.

We, today, need to help and support those priests and Bishops who struggle against their fellow clergy to give us the True teaching of the Church. They are increasingly isolated and persecuted.
 
Thanks for all the information about St. Athanasius. I got a good book about him; it’s not very scholarly but it’s very easy to read. It’s really great to learn more about him.
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Pentecost2005:
You have no idea? Are you serious? Are you Catholic? Are you familiar with the Apostles’ Creed?
Click to expand...
I am a Catholic, and I’m familiar with the Apostles’ Creed and with the Nicene creed, which was first composed at the Council of Nicea, where Athanasius was a major figure. I guess I shouldn’t say I had no idea, because I do know that we share the same faith, but given that there are many saints who played important roles in various councils, and given that I share the Catholic faith of all the saints, I didn’t know why I felt such a strong connection with one particular saint.
 
Last week some friends and I were discussing a similar topic…it was more general, however.

One friend said that she’d heard somewhere that every “year” a particuar saint “adopts” us, and in a sense, walks hand in hand with us for that time period. God reveals this connection in different ways.

For about the last year, St. Therese of Lisieux has adopted me…this was revealed to me in many ways and now that my friend explained this, IT MAKES SENSE!

Then last night, I felt a particular connection with another Saint, so apparently he has adopted me. I don’t think there’s any limit to how many Saints we can walk with at one time.

I’m glad that you pursued your interest in this revealed Patron Saint of yours. Have you kept any sort of journal? If not, you may want to start by summarizing, and then just go on from there. You may want to look back on it as you go and who knows? Catch any lessons maybe missed the first time.

God is so good to us through his saints!
 
I’ve felt a similar connection with St. Dymphna this past year and, currently, St. Rosalia (patron saint against the plague) in light of the recent flu season. However, when you spoke of a connection it reminds me more of these intense desires God gives me to pray for certain people even people I don’t know. They are on my mind continuously. I used to think it was obsessive now I realize that God wants me to pray for these souls, so I offer them up in prayer throughout the day.
 
I was reading about Saint Bernadette last year, and as I was reading about her, I had dreams of her and about her life. It
was very real. I seen the Cachot, her early life in the Boly Mill,
her birth, and saw her incorrupt body at the convent at Saint
Gildard in France. It was like a fly by of her life. I also had a dream of her kneeling at the right hand side of the Blessed Virgin
completely clothed in white, they both were. They were pointing
at the sky with their right index fingers and urgently told me to
look. ( I posted the account of this under a thread titled" Bleeding
Scapular " ) I feel very connected to this saint. We like the same
things, we were both very poor as chidlren, and suffered ill health.
I have no idea why I had a vision of her, and why I continue to
dream about her. Someday, I hope to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Hopefully get to visit the convent where she is at.
The feeling of connection to her is very real, and very awesome.
Thanks for posting this 🙂
 
I have always felt a closeness to St Anthony of Padua. He is the one I always seen to turn to and talk to. Once I answered an advertisement and sent some Catholic magazines to a parish in India.

Out of the blue an Indian priest sent me a card of St Anthony as a thank-you. It had a picture of the relic of St Anthony’s uncorrupted tongue and a small piece of cloth that had been touched to it. I carry it around to this day, twenty years later.
 
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