Origen of Alexandria
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Born:
185 AD
Died: 254 AD
Feastday: not known
A
celebrated ecclesiastical writer; born Alexandria, Egypt, 185; died Tyre,
Phenicia, 253. When his father Leonides was martyred, Origen, then a youth, had
to support his family by teaching. He succeeded Clement as head of the
catechetical school of Alexandria, which under him became a nursery of
confessors and martyrs. About 215 he visited Palestine, where he was invited to
preach, though still a layman. Later while journeying to Greece he was ordained
at Cresarea; Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, was displeased at this and
Origen, forced to quit the catechetical school, 231, settled at Caesarea in
Palestine and resumed his teaching. During the Maximinian persecution he
visited Cappadocia, and on his return completed his scriptural commentaries.
Under Decius he was imprisoned and tortured and died some years later, probably
from the effect of his sufferings. Origen was an extremely fertile writer, but
many of his works have perished, while others exist only in translations. His
commentaries on Matthew, John, the Canticle of Canticles, and the Epistle to
the Romans are in part extant. He popularized the homily, being called its
father, more than 20 of his discourses being preserved in Greek and 118 in
Latin; in addition we have his brilliant polemic "Contra Celsum" and
"De principiis," dealing with the Trinity, creation, free-will, and
scriptural inspiration and interpretation. His masterpiece was the
"Hexapla," an edition of the Old Testament, with the Hebrew and Greek
texts in parallel columns, which except for some fragments of the Psalms
(discovered, 1896, 1900) has perished. It was translated into Syriac and
fortunately large portions of this Syro-Hexaplar text are extant. In this, the
most colossal critical production of antiquity, estimated to have filled at
least 6000 pages, he attempted to show the relationship of the Septuagint to
the Hebrew text and the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.
Origen exerted a very great influence during his lifetime and after death, not
only in the East but; among the Latins, but certain doctrines referred to under
the name of Origenism, rightly or wrongly attributed to him, gave rise later to
several sharp controversies. He laid down the proper doctrine regarding the
Church and the rule of Faith; being human he may have made mistakes but, with
his essentially Catholic disposition of mind, he does not merit to be ranked
among the promoters of heresy. He has been accused of admitting only an
allegorical interpretation of Scripture too freely, of Subordinationism, of
teaching the eternity of creation, a necessary connection between created
spirits and matters, and the final universality of redemption. It must be remembered,
however, that he was the first to wrestle with many of the intricate problems
involved therein, before theological language had acquired precision; that many
of his assertions were based on hypotheses, which he at other times rejects or
leaves open to discussion. The opinion of most modern scholars is that it is
not proved that he incurred the anathema of the Church at the Fifth General
Council, 553. 1
1. Taken from the New
Catholic Dictionary at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ncd06175.htm
“When
the close of the times draws nigh, a great prophet shall be sent from God to
turn men to the knowledge of God, and he shall receive the power of doing
wonderful things.1401 Wherever men shall not hear him, he will shut up the
heaven, and cause it to withhold its rains; he will turn their water into
blood, and torment them with thirst and hunger; and if any one shall endeavour
to injure him, fire shall come forth out of his mouth, and shall burn that man.
By these prodigies and powers he shall turn many to the worship of God; and
when his works shall be accomplished, another king shall arise out of Syria,
born from an evil spirit, the overthrower and destroyer of the human race, who
shall destroy that which is left by the former evil, together with himself. He
shall fight against the prophet of God, and shall overcome, and slay him, and
shall suffer him to lie unburied; but after the third day he shall come to life
again; and while all look on and wonder, he shall be caught up into heaven. But
that king will not only be most disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a
prophet of lies; and he will constitute and call himself God, and will order
himself to be worshipped as the Son of God; and power will be given him to do
signs and wonders, by the sight of which he may entice men to adore him. He
will command fire to come down from heaven, and the sun to stand and leave his
course, and an image to speak; and these things shall be done at his word,—by
which many even of the wise shall be
enticed by him. Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God, and
persecute the righteous people; and there will be distress and tribulation,
such as there never has been from the beginning of the world. As many as shall believe him and unite
themselves to him, shall be marked by him as sheep; but they who shall refuse
his mark will either flee to the mountains, or, being seized, will be slain
with studied tortures. He will also enwrap righteous men with the books of the
prophets, and thus burn them; and power will be given him to desolate the whole
earth for forty-two months. That will be the time in which righteousness shall
be cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the
good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be
preserved; no one shall reverence hoary locks, nor recognise the duty of piety,
nor pity sex or infancy; all things shall be confounded and mixed together
against right, and against the laws of nature. Thus the earth shall be laid
waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things shall so happen, then
the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the
wicked, and flee into solitudes. And when he hears of this, the impious king,
inflamed with anger, will come with a great army, and bringing up all his
forces, will surround all the mountain in which the righteous shall be
situated, that he may seize them. But they, when they shall see themselves to
be shut in on all sides and besieged, will call upon God with a loud voice, and
implore the aid of heaven; and God shall hear them, and send from heaven a
great king to rescue and free them, and destroy all the wicked with fire and
sword. 1
References
1.
Taken from ANF07. Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries by Philip Schaff, at
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.iii.ii.vii.xvii.html