medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Alexander was elected bishop of Alexandria in Egypt in 313, succeeding St. Achillas. In the chronotaxis of the Coptic Orthodox Church he was the nineteenth pope of the See of Mark; in that of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa he was its nineteenth pope and patriarch. Alexander had to deal with such matters as the Meletian schism, left over from the days of his predecessor but one, St. Peter the Martyr, and another schism in which a point of differentiation was the correct timing of Easter. That said, his tenure in office is memorable especially for his dealing with the priest Arius. Alexander convened a synod in Alexandria in 320 that condemned as heretical Arius' christological teaching and followed this up both by doctrinal letters to individual bishops and by an encyclical cataloging what from his perspective were Arius' errors. Alexander had a leading role in the condemnation of Arius at the First Council of Nicaea (the First Ecumenical Council) in 325. The year of his death is uncertain: the leading candidates are 326 and 328. He was succeeded as bishop of Alexandria in Egypt by his disciple St. Athanasius of Alexandria. English-language translations of some of his writings are available here:
http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/alexander-chart
Rufinus (_Historia ecclesiastica_, 1. 14) and Socrates (_Historia ecclesiastica_, 1. 15) preserve slightly different versions of a story in which Alexander is said to have observed several youths at the seashore performing what appeared to be a form of ecclesiastical ritual (Rufinus specifies baptism). When these were questioned it turned out that Athanasius was their leader and that their intent was to imitate but not to mock. Alexander had the youths brought up to be clergy. This was how Athanasius entered into his discipleship with Alexander. Thus far the story.
In the ninth-century martyrologies of St. Ado of Vienne and Usuard of Saint-Germain today is Alexander's feast day. It has also been his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology from its later sixteenth-century beginnings onward. The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates his departure on 22. Parmouti / Barmudah (Gregorian: 2. April or, in leap years, 1. April); that church also venerates pope Alexander II (d. 729) as a saint, thus rendering advisable the use of the ordinal number for both popes saint Alexander of Alexandria.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Alexander I of Alexandria:
a) as depicted in a somewhat degraded eleventh-century fresco in the monastery church of the Virgin Eleousa at Veljusa (Strumica municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/6u3jhvo
b) as depicted (image at left; questioning the youths) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of books 9-16 of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language vision by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1335; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fol 321v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f648.item.zoom
c) as depicted (at center in this view; pope St. Sylvester at left) in a detail view of the image of the First Ecumenical Council in the earlier fourteenth-century (betw. 1335 and 1350) frescoes in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Deèani monastery near Peæ in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/y96krb3
The image as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/p24hhj2
d) as depicted (questioning the youths) in a later fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1370-1380) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 15939-15942, at 15942 [bks. 14-16], fol. 30r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84496928/f67.item.zoom
e) as depicted (opposing Arius [who is dressed in blue] at the First Ecumenical Council) in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fol. 130r):
http://tinyurl.com/yzb3xjp
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|