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 ORIGEN

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ORIGEN

that city, assisted by Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, raised him to the priesthood. Demetrius, although he had given letters of recommendation to Origen, was very much offended by this ordination, which had taken place without his knowledge and, as he thought, in derogation of his rights. If Eusebius (VI, viii) is to be believed, he was envious of the increasing influence of his catechist. So, on his return to Alexandria, Ori- gen soon perceived that his bishop was rather un- friendly towards him. He yielded to the storm and quitted Egypt (231). The details of this affair were recorded by Eusebius in the lost second book of the "Apology for Origen"; according to Photius, who had read the work, two councils were held at Alexandria, one of which pronounced a decree of banishment against Origen while the other deposed him from the priesthood (Biblioth. cod. 118). St. Jerome declares expressly that he was not condemned on a point of doctrine.

(2) Origen at Cmsarea (232). — Expelled from Alex- andria. Origen fixed his abotle at Cffisarea in Palestine (232), with his protector and friend Theoctistus, founded a new school there, and resumed his "Com- mentary on St. John" at the point where it had been interrupted. He was soon surrounded by pupils. The most distinguished of these, without doubt, was St. Gregory Thaumaturgus who, with his brother Apollo- dorus, attended Origen's lectures for five years and de- hvered on leaving him a celebrated "Farewell Ad- dress". During the persecution of Maximinus (23.5- 37) Origen visited his friend, St. Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who made him remain for a long period. On this occasion he was hospitably en- tertained by a Christian lady of Csesarea, named Juli- ana, who had inherited the writings of Symmachus, the translator of the Old Testament (Palladius, "Hist. Laus.", 147). The years following were devoted almost uninterruptedly to the composition of the ' ' Commentaries ' '. Mention is made only of a few ex- cursions to the Holy Places, a journey to Athens (Eu- sebius, VI, xxxii), and two voyages to Arabia, one of which was undertaken for the conversion of Beryllus, a Patripassian (Eusebius, VI, xxxiii; St. Jerome, "De viris ill.", Ix), the other to refute certain heretics who denied the Resurrection (Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", VI, xxxvii). Age did not diminish his activities. He was over sixty when he wrote his "Contra Celsum" and his " Commentary on St. Matthew". The persecution of Decius (250) prevented him from continuing these works. Origen was imprisoned and barbarously tor- tured, but his courage was unshaken and from his prison he wrote letters breathing the spirit of the mar- tyrs (Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", VI, xxxix). He was still alive on the death of Decius (2.51), but only lin- gering on, and he died, probably, from the results of the sufferings endured during the persecution (2.53 or 2.54), at the :i«(' of sixty-nine (Eu.sebius, "Hist, eccl.", VII, i). His Inst ila\s were spent at Tyr, though his reason for rctinu.j; tliither is unknown. He was buried with honour ;is a confessor of the Faith. For a long time liis sepulchre, behind the high-altar of the cathedral of Tyr, was visited by pilgrims. To-day, as nothing re- mains of this cathedral except a ma.ss of ruins, the ex- act location of his tomb is unknown.

B. Works. — Very few authors were as fertile as Ori- gen. St. Epiphanius estimates at six thousand the number of his writings, counting separately, without doubt, the different books of a single work, his homi- lies, letters, and his smallest treatises (Ha;res., LXIV, Ixiii). This figure, repeated by many ecclesiastical writers, seems greatly exaggerated. St. Jerome as- sures us that the list of Origen's writings drawn up by St. Pamphilus did not contain even two thousand titles (Contra Rutin., II, xxii; III, xxiii); but this list was evidently incomplete. Eusebius ("Hist, eccl.", VI, xxxii) had inserted it in his biography of St. Pamphi- ' lus and St. Jerome inserted it in a letter to Paula, the

interesting part of which, discovered in the last cen- tury, was published by Klostermann among others (Sitzungsber. der . . . Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, 1897, pp. 8.55-70).

(1) Exegetical Writings. — Origen had devoted three kinds of works to the explanation of the Holy Scrip- tures : commentaries, homilies, and scholia (St. "Jerome, "Prologus interpret, homiliar. Orig. in Ezechiel"). The commentaries (t6moi libri, volumitia) were a con- tinuous and well-developed interpretation of the in- spired text. An idea of their magnitude may be formed from the fact that the words of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word ", furnished material for a whole roll. There remain in Greek only eight books of the "Commentary on St. Matthew", and nine books of the "Commentary on St. John"; in Latin an anony- mous translation of the "Commentary on St. Mat- thew" beginning with chapter xvi, three books and a half of the "Commentary on the Canticle of Canti- cles" translated by Rufinus, and an abridgment of the "Commentary on the Epistles to the Romans" by the same translator. The homilies (6/uMai, homr- ilia;, tractatus) were familiar discourses on texts of Scripture, often extemporary and recorded as well as possible by stenographers. The list is long and un- doubtedly must have been longer if it be true that Origen, as St. Pamphilus declares in his "Apology", preached almost every day. There remain in Greek twenty-one (twenty on Jeremias and the celebrated homily on the witch of Endor) ; in Latin, one hundred and eighteen translated by Rufinus, seventy-eight translated by St. Jerome and some others of more or less doubtful authenticity, preserved in a collection of homilies. The twenty "Tractatus Origenis" recently discovered are not the work of Origen, though use has been made of his writings. Origen has been called the father of the homily; it was he who con- tributed most to popularize this species of literature in which are to be found so many instructive details on the customs of the primitive Church, its institu- tions, discipline, liturgy, and sacraments. The scholia (ffxi^^'o, excerpta, commaticum interpretandi genus) were exegetical, philological, or historical notes, on words or passages of the Bible, like the an- notations of the Alexandria grammarians on the pro- fane writers. Except some few short fragments all of these have perished.

(2) Other Writings. — We now possess only two of Origen's letters: one addressed to St. Gregory Thau- maturgus on the reading of. Holy Scripture, the other to Julius African us on the Greek additions to the Book of Daniel. Two opuscula have been preserved entire in the original form; an excellent treatise "On Prayer" and an "Exhortation to Martyrdom", sent by Origen to his friend Ambrose, then a prisoner for the Faith. Finally two large works have escaped the ravages of time: the "Contra Celsum" in the original text, and the " De principiis" in a Latin translation by Rufinus and in the citations of the " Philocalia" which might equal in contents one-sixth of the whole work. In the eight books of the "Contra Celsum" Origen follows his adversary point by point, refuting in de- tail each of his false imputations. It is a model of reasoning, erudition, and honest polemic. The "De principiis", composed at Alexandria, and which, it seems, got into the hands of the public before its completion, treated successively in its four books, al- lowing for numerous digressions, of: (a) God and the Trinity, (b) the world and its relation to God, (c) man and his free will, (d) Scripture, its inspiration and in- terpretation. Many other works of Origen have been entirely lost: for instance, the treatise in two books "On the Resurrection", a treatise "On Free Will", and ten books of "Miscellaneous Writings" (STpu/iarerr). For Origen's critical work see Hexapla. For his writings see Westcott in "Diet, of Christ. Biog.", 8. v.; Preuschen in Harnack, "Die Ueberlieferung und