Bishop Athanasius Schneider was born in 1961 in Kyrgyzstan to a German family and baptized with the name Antonius. In 1973, the family emigrated to Germany. He joined the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Austria in 1982 and received the religious name Athanasius; he was ordained a priest in Brazil in 1990. Having earned a doctorate in Patrology at the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome, he has taught since 1999 at the seminary in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. In 2006, he was ordained a bishop in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and appointed titular bishop of Celerina and auxiliary bishop of Karaganda. Since 2011, he has been auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Chairman of the Liturgical Commission and Secretary General of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan. Bishop Schneider is the author of two books on the Holy Eucharist: “Dominus Est – It Is the Lord!” and “Corpus Christi: Holy Communion and the Renewal of the Church.” His most recent book is called “Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age.”
Follow Bishop Schneider on his website, www.gloriadei.io.
