Alexander, Bishop and Martyr of Jerusalem

baptized, and thus began to teach. It is not necessary, therefore, that one who is to be ordained should be consecrated only at this lawful age.

The decrees of the same from his Book of Decrees of sixteen books, book five, chapters seven and nine. 1. That the oblation of the altar should be made on every Lord's day. We decree that in all Lord's days the oblation of the altar be made by all men and women, as much of bread as of wine, so that through these immolations they may be freed from the burdens of their sins. That an unlettered priest should not dare to celebrate mass. The sacrifice is not to be received from the hand of a priest who is unable to fulfill the prayers or actions and the remaining observances in the mass according to the rite.

ANNO DOMINI CCLI.

ST. ALEXANDER OF JERUSALEM, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

NOTITIA

I. Alexander was first bishop in Cappadocia, which Church he ruled. He was translated to the Jerusalem see by divine providence. II. After a renowned confession of faith, a man conspicuous for his dignified old age, he succumbed to martyrdom in prison in the year of our Lord 252, having administered the Church of Jerusalem for about 40 years. III. In the city of Aelia, Alexander established a notable library. He also wrote various epistles: to the Antinoites, to the Antiochenes, to Origen, and for Origen against Demetrius. Fragments of these were gathered from Eusebius.

Eusebius writes (1) that Alexander was first ordained bishop in Cappadocia, ^B though he withholds the name of the city in which he presided. Jerome (2) does not say otherwise. Valesius and Tillemont (3) assert that Alexander was bishop of Flaviadis, from the Greco-Roman law (4): whose text, however, Wesseling (5) considered the words to be so corrupt that it does not seem doubtful to him that there is no error in this part. Be that as it may, "In the 2nd year of Antoninus Caracalla, of Christ 213," as Eusebius has it in his Chronicle (6), "Alexander is ordained the thirty-fifth bishop of the Jerusalemites while Narcissus was still living, and together with him he governed the Church." The same Bishop of Caesarea recounts the matter more fully elsewhere. "Meanwhile, he says (7), when Severus had held the empire for eighteen years, Antoninus (Caracalla), his son, succeeded in his place. At which time Alexander, one of the number of those who had fought bravely in the persecution (of Severus), and who after the glorious struggles of confession had been reserved by divine Providence, whom we recalled a little before as having been bishop of the Jerusalemites, was promoted to the aforementioned bishopric on account of a renowned confession of the Christian faith, Narcissus who had been bishop there before him still surviving." And a little later (8): "But when, on account of extreme old age, he (Narcissus) could no longer perform his ministry, divine dispensation, through a certain revelation that had appeared to him in a dream, called the aforementioned Alexander, bishop of another Church, to share the office of priest with Narcissus. Alexander, therefore, being admonished by this vision as if by a divine oracle, when he had set out from Cappadocia, in which he had first been ordained bishop, to Jerusalem, for the sake of both praying and visiting the holy places, the brethren of that Church received him most humanely and did not allow him to return to his homeland," etc.

II. Finally, after a few things have been interposed, he adds this (9): "In Palestine, however, Alexander, bishop of the Jerusalemites, again brought to the tribunal of the governor for the sake of Christ, after having won great glory from this second confession (under Decius), was thrown into prison at Caesarea: a man of dignified old age..."

and conspicuous for his venerable gray hair. When he had breathed his last in custody after a clear and illustrious confession of the Christian faith in the provincial judgment hall, Mazabanes was appointed bishop of Jerusalem in his place.” Up to this point Eusebius. Dionysius of Alexandria reports the same concerning the martyrdom of Alexander himself, writing to Pope Cornelius: “As far as concerns Alexander,” he says, “he was cast into prison and died with a blessed departure;” or as Jerome says, “he is crowned with martyrdom.” His precious death is recorded in the year of the Lord 252 in the Eusebian Chronicle: so that he administered the Jerusalem Church for about 40 years.

III. Alexander, outstanding in piety and doctrine, among other most renowned monuments, built a noble library in the city of Aelia, which he ruled, into which he especially gathered the epistles of ecclesiastical men, which were flourishing in literature at that time; which library it is found did not burn in the fire of Diocletian, as Baronius observes: for Eusebius testifies that it had lasted intact up to his own time, and he confesses with a grateful spirit that he gathered from thence most abundant material for the weaving of his Ecclesiastical History.

Nor did Alexander cease to illuminate the Church with his own writings. For he wrote several epistles to the Antinoites, a fragment of one of which Eusebius and Jerome recite. “He wrote also another to the Antiochenes through Clement, a presbyter of Alexandria,” while he was held bound in prison: “and also to Origen, and for Origen against Demetrius;” these are the words of Jerome which we have brought forward in their place among the notes of the illustrious Valesius.

OF ST. ALEXANDER, FIRST BISHOP OF CAPPADOCIA, THEN OF JERUSALEM, AND MARTYR, FRAGMENTS OF EPISTLES.

I. *Epistle to the Antiochenes. In Eusebius, Hist. eccl. lib. VI, cap. 11.*

Alexander, a servant of God and prisoner of Jesus Christ, ^B to the most blessed Church of the Antiochenes, greeting in the Lord. God made the bonds of my imprisonment light and easy for me, after I learned that Asclepiades, a man most suitable by merit of his faith, had by divine providence undertaken the bishopric of your most holy Church. Furthermore, I have sent these letters to you, my masters and brothers, through the blessed presbyter Clement, a man endowed with virtue and proven: whom you both already know, and will know more fully. Indeed, by the nod and providence of God, while he was present here among us, he both confirmed and greatly increased the Church of Christ.

FRAGMENTS OF EPISTLES

II

From the Epistle to the Antinoites. Ibidem.

^A Narcissus greets you, who held the episcopal see of this Church before me, and who is now joined to me in prayers, being one hundred and sixteen years old, and he urges you that you all may think the same as I do.

III

From the Epistle to Origen. Ibid., chap. 14.

For this was the will of God, as you know, etc.

IV

From the Epistle to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria. Ibid., chap. 19.

But as for what you added in your letters, that this was never heard of, nor has it occurred until now, that laymen should preach in the presence of bishops—in that, I know not how you have wandered very far from the truth. For wherever there are found those who are able to benefit the brethren, they are voluntarily exhorted by the holy bishops to address the people. Thus, Evelpis at Laranda was requested by Neon; Paulinus at Iconium by Celsus; and Theodorus at ^B Synnada by Atticus, our most blessed brethren. And it is likely that this happens in other places as well, even if we do not know of it.