Alexandrian Christianity

In a city not far from EphesusEphesusA great city of Ionia. Its ruins lie by Selçuk, in today's Turkey. Clement's story of John is set in a city near it.Place · pleiades.stoa.org, the aged apostle John once left a promising young man in the bishop's care. ClementClementClement was born about 150 and died about 215. He taught in the city from about 180. He left when persecution came under Severus.Person, one of our teachers, passed this on as a true account, handed down and kept in memory.

The bishop taught the young man and baptized him. Then he relaxed his watch. The young man fell in with idle companions, and then with worse ones. At last he ran to the hills and became chief of a band of robbers.

Years later John came back and asked the bishop to return what he had left in his keeping. The bishop wept. The young man was dead to God, he said, a robber on the mountain. The old apostle tore his clothes, called for a horse and rode out to the mountain himself.

When the young man saw him, he fled. John forgot his age and rode after him. He begged his child not to run from his own father, old and unarmed. There was still hope of life for him, John said, and he would answer for him to Christ.

The young man stopped, threw down his weapons and wept. John led him back, prayed with him and fasted beside him in the struggle. He did not leave until he had restored him to the church.

About the year 202, under the emperor SeverusSeverusA Roman emperor. In his reign, about 202, the hunt for Christians struck Alexandria, and Origen's father was put to death.Person, persecution struck AlexandriaAlexandriaA port city in Egypt's Nile Delta, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 or 331 BCE. Its modern name is Iskandariya.Place · pleiades.stoa.org. Leonides was arrested and held for beheading. His son OrigenOrigenOrigen lived from about 185 to about 253. He taught in Alexandria until he broke with his bishop. Then he taught in Caesarea.Person was sixteen. EusebiusEusebiusEusebius of Caesarea, about 260 to 339. His Church History is the main source here. He is more reliable when he quotes documents.Person tells what happened next in that house. He wrote a century later, from our church's memory, from Origen's own letters and from reports about him.

The boy burned to give himself up and die beside his father. His mother begged him to spare her, but he would not listen. So she hid all his clothes, and shame kept him at home.

Origen did the one thing left to him. He wrote to his father in prison. One line of that letter survives, "Take heed not to change your mind on our account."

Leonides did not change his mind. He was beheaded, and the family's property was seized. Not yet seventeen, Origen was left the eldest of seven children, and his mother was a widow.

When EusebiusEusebiusEusebius of Caesarea, about 260 to 339. His Church History is the main source here. He is more reliable when he quotes documents.Person wrote, PotamiaenaPotamiaenaA young woman put to death under Severus. Her story comes to us as a tradition that devotion has shaped.Person was still famous among the people of the country for all she had endured. Her story reached him already shaped by devotion.

She was a young woman put to death under the emperor SeverusSeverusA Roman emperor. In his reign, about 202, the hunt for Christians struck Alexandria, and Origen's father was put to death.Person, and her mother Marcella died with her. She was threatened with what ancient cruelty kept for women, and she stood fast. The tradition says the judge sentenced her to die by burning pitch, poured slowly.

A soldier named BasilidesBasilidesThe soldier who led Potamiaena to her death. Eusebius counts him among Origen's disciples who died for the faith.Person led her out. The tradition says he held back the crowd's abuse with such gentleness that she told him to take courage. She promised, it says, to ask her Lord for him when she was gone.

Not long after, his fellow soldiers asked Basilides to swear an oath. He refused, because he was a Christian. At first they thought he was joking, but he was not. The tradition says he told them the reason. Potamiaena had come to him in the night and set a crown on his head.

Our church baptized him in prison. Then he was beheaded.

OrigenOrigenOrigen lived from about 185 to about 253. He taught in Alexandria until he broke with his bishop. Then he taught in Caesarea.Person was still young, and teaching the faith in AlexandriaAlexandriaA port city in Egypt's Nile Delta, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 or 331 BCE. Its modern name is Iskandariya.Place · pleiades.stoa.org. He taught men and women together, day and night.

EusebiusEusebiusEusebius of Caesarea, about 260 to 339. His Church History is the main source here. He is more reliable when he quotes documents.Person alone tells what Origen did then, and no account from Origen himself describes it. Eusebius says Origen wanted no one to accuse him of wrong, so he took a hard verse from Matthew in the most literal sense. It speaks of those who "have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." By this account he acted on it himself, and tried to keep it secret, but he could not. Eusebius calls the act immature, and in the same breath a proof of unusual faith.

When his bishop, DemetriusDemetriusHe was bishop of Alexandria for forty-three years, until about 232.Person, learned of it, he admired the young man's daring and faith, and urged him to keep teaching. Later, once Origen had grown famous beyond Alexandria, the same Demetrius turned that youthful act against him. He wrote to bishops everywhere calling it foolish. He also attacked Origen's ordination by the bishops of CaesareaCaesareaA city on the coast of Roman Palestine. Its site, Qesaria, is in today's Israel. Origen lived and taught here.Place · pleiades.stoa.org and Jerusalem.

Some have doubted that it happened at all, and thought the report grew from Origen's own figures of speech. Others see no reason to doubt it.

Origen himself later judged the verse differently. He wrote against reading it so literally.

For years the teacher and the bishop held together. DemetriusDemetriusHe was bishop of Alexandria for forty-three years, until about 232.Person governed our church and OrigenOrigenOrigen lived from about 185 to about 253. He taught in Alexandria until he broke with his bishop. Then he taught in Caesarea.Person taught, and the fame of the school filled the city.

Nearly all we know of what came next comes from EusebiusEusebiusEusebius of Caesarea, about 260 to 339. His Church History is the main source here. He is more reliable when he quotes documents.Person. He admired Origen, and he was hostile to the memory of Demetrius.

The break came over authority. On a journey through Palestine, Origen was ordained a presbyterpresbyterAn office in the church. Clement taught that a good life came first, and the office came after it.Term by the bishops there. His own bishop had not agreed to it. Demetrius condemned the ordination, and the teacher with it.

Around his forty-sixth year, Origen left AlexandriaAlexandriaA port city in Egypt's Nile Delta, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 or 331 BCE. Its modern name is Iskandariya.Place · pleiades.stoa.org for CaesareaCaesareaA city on the coast of Roman Palestine. Its site, Qesaria, is in today's Israel. Origen lived and taught here.Place · pleiades.stoa.org. He never taught in the city again.

The church kept both memories, the office that had to be honored and the teacher. What each man said, and with what heart, we cannot hear. The synods' rulings from the break are lost.

OrigenOrigenOrigen lived from about 185 to about 253. He taught in Alexandria until he broke with his bishop. Then he taught in Caesarea.Person did not begin with doctrines, GregoryGregory of NeocaesareaAbout 213 to about 270. He studied with Origen at Caesarea from about 233 to 238. People question the date and author of his farewell speech.Person says. He began like a farmer testing soil. He questioned young Gregory and dug into his mind to see what it did under pressure.

Gregory had come from Neo-CaesareaNeo-CaesareaGregory's home city, in Pontus. Its site is Niksar, in today's Turkey.Place · pleiades.stoa.org, in Pontus, to study law. At CaesareaCaesareaA city on the coast of Roman Palestine. Its site, Qesaria, is in today's Israel. Origen lived and taught here.Place · pleiades.stoa.org he met Origen, and he stayed some five years. He tells how he was taught in a farewell speech of praise, though who gave it, and when, is not settled.

Logic came first, to make thinking honest. Next came the natural world, geometry and the stars, until the students' sense of wonder was trained. Then came ethics, formed as habits, with the teacher's own life teaching as well. Only then came theology. They read everything the philosophers and poets had said of God, with Scripture at the center.

Under all of it, Gregory says, something else was happening. Love was kindled in his inmost soul, like a spark falling there. It was love for the holy Word, and for this man who was the Word's friend. Gregory gave up the law. When at last he had to leave, he called it being driven out of paradise.

The village churches near Arsinoe loved a bishop named NeposNeposAn Egyptian bishop who wrote a book against the allegorists. He read the promises in Scripture as a thousand-year kingdom on earth.Person. He had written a book against the allegorists. The promises in Scripture, he said, meant a thousand-year kingdom of plenty on this earth, plainly read. Nepos had died, and his book now ruled whole congregations. That book is lost. We know it only from the bishop who answered it.

Our bishop DionysiusDionysiusBishop of Alexandria from about 248 to 264. Before that he led the teaching. He led the church through persecution and plague.Person went out to the villages. He told the story himself, in his book On the Promises, and EusebiusEusebiusEusebius of Caesarea, about 260 to 339. His Church History is the main source here. He is more reliable when he quotes documents.Person later quoted it. He called together the elders and the teachers, and any of the people who wished to come. For three days, from morning to evening, he sat with them and examined the book, argument by argument.

He wrote afterward that he loved Nepos for his faith, his hard work in the Scriptures and his psalms. Even so, he wrote, "the truth should be loved and honored most of all." He rejoiced in the constancy and sincerity of the believers, and in their willingness to reconsider as they weighed the arguments together.

At the end, Coracion, the leader of the other side, was persuaded. He said so in front of everyone. Some of the other believers, the account says, were glad at the spirit of agreement all had shown.

A great sickness came to AlexandriaAlexandriaA port city in Egypt's Nile Delta, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 or 331 BCE. Its modern name is Iskandariya.Place · pleiades.stoa.org about the year 260, and every house had its dead. Our bishop DionysiusDionysiusBishop of Alexandria from about 248 to 264. Before that he led the teaching. He led the church through persecution and plague.Person wrote to the churches at festival time, while the plague still raged.

Most of the brothers and sisters did not run, he wrote. They visited the sick without fear, tended them day after day and served them in Christ.

Many caught the sickness from those they nursed, and they died of it. He wrote that they died most joyfully, as if drawing their neighbors' pain onto themselves. Our church buried its dead with open hands.

In the same letter, he said the pagans thrust away their own sick at the first sign of illness, and fled even from their dearest.

DidymusDidymusDidymus the Blind, about 309 or 313 to about 398. Later tradition says he headed the school. Palladius, Jerome and Socrates do not say so.Person lost his sight at four, he told PalladiusPalladiusPalladius of Galatia, about 363 to about 430. He wrote the Lausiac History in 419 and 420. It tells of his visits to Didymus.Person, too young ever to have learned to read. Palladius met him four times over ten years and wrote down what he saw.

By then Didymus was old. What others took in with their eyes, he had taken in through his ears and held on to. He interpreted Scripture word by word. Palladius calls him the blind author. Jerome, who studied with him briefly, says, writing in 392 or 393, that he had already passed his eighty-third year.

Later tradition called him the seer, a name set against his blindness. Most of the books he wrote are lost to us, and only fragments were recovered, centuries later.

He died at the age of eighty-five.