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| Origen, surnamed Adamantius.
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Chapter LIV.
Origen,2463
surnamed Adamantius, a
persecution having been raised against the Christians in the tenth year
of Severus Pertinax, and his father Leonidas having received the crown
of martyrdom for Christ, was left at the age of about seventeen, with
his six brothers and widowed mother, in poverty, for their property had
been confiscated because of confessing Christ. When only eighteen years
old, he undertook the work of instructing the Catechetes in the
scattered churches of Alexandria. Afterwards appointed by Demetrius,
bishop of this city, successor to the presbyter Clement, he flourished
many years. When he had already reached middle life, on account of the
churches of Achaia, which were torn with many heresies, he was
journeying to Athens, by way of Palestine, under the authority of an
ecclesiastical letter, and having been ordained presbyter by
Theoctistus and Alexander, bishops of Cæsarea and Jerusalem, he
offended Demetrius, who was so wildly enraged at him that he wrote
everywhere to injure his reputation. It is known that before he went to
Cæsarea, he had been at Rome, under bishop Zephyrinus. Immediately
on his return to Alexandria he made Heraclas the presbyter, who
continued to wear his philosopher’s garb, his assistant in the
school for catechetes. Heraclas became bishop of the church of
Alexandria, after Demetrius. How great the glory of Origen was, appears
from the fact that Firmilianus, bishop of Cæsarea, with all the
Cappadocian bishops, sought a visit from him, and entertained him for a
long while. Sometime afterwards, going to Palestine to visit the holy
places, he came to Cæsarea2464
| 2464 Cæsarea. Cæsarea in
Palestine. | and was
instructed at length by Origen in the Holy Scriptures. It appears also
from the fact that he went to Antioch, on the request of Mammaea,
mother of the Emperor Alexander, and a woman religiously disposed, and
was there held in great honour, and sent letters to the Emperor Philip,
who was the first among the Roman rulers, to become a christian, and to
his mother, letters which are still extant. Who is there, who does not
also know that he was so assiduous in the study of Holy Scriptures,
that contrary to the spirit of his time, and of his people, he learned the
Hebrew language, and taking the Septuagint translation, he gathered the
other translations also in a single work, namely, that of Aquila, of
Ponticus the Proselyte, and Theodotian the Ebonite, and Symmachus an
adherent of the same sect who wrote commentaries also on the gospel
according to Matthew, from which he tried to establish his doctrine.
And besides these, a fifth, sixth, and seventh translation, which we
also have from his library, he sought out with great diligence, and
compared with other editions. And since I have given a list of his
works, in the volumes of letters which I have written to Paula, in a
letter which I wrote against the works of Varro, I pass this by now,
not failing however, to make mention of his immortal genius, how that
he understood dialectics, as well as geometry, arithmetic, music,
grammar, and rhetoric, and taught all the schools of philosophers, in
such wise that he had also diligent students in secular literature, and
lectured to them daily, and the crowds which flocked to him were
marvellous. These, he received in the hope that through the
instrumentality of this secular literature, he might establish them in
the faith of Christ.
It is unnecessary to speak of
the cruelty of that persecution which was raised against the Christians
and under Decius, who was mad against the religion of Philip, whom he
had slain,—the persecution in which Fabianus, bishop of the Roman
church, perished at Rome, and Alexander and Babylas, Pontifs of the
churches of Jerusalem and Antioch, were imprisoned for their confession
of Christ. If any one wishes to know what was done in regard to the
position of Origen, he can clearly learn, first indeed from his own
epistles, which after the persecution, were sent to different ones, and
secondly, from the sixth book of the church history of Eusebius of
Cæsarea, and from his six volumes in behalf of the same
Origen.
He lived until the time of
Gallus and Volusianus, that is, until his sixty-ninth year, and died at
Tyre, in which city he also was buried. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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