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PATRISTICS/ Origen
Origen (Greek: Origen Adamantius, c. 185?-254?) was an early Christian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished of the early fathers of the Christian Church. He was active during a period of great intellectual confusion among Christians, when Gnosticism was the dominant intellectual force, and orthodoxy was struggling to find a voice. According to tradition, he is held to have been an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School of Alexandria where Clement of Alexandria had taught. The patriarch of Alexandria at first supported Origen but later expelled him for being ordained without the patriarch's permission. He relocated to Caesarea Maritima and died there after being tortured during a persecution. Using his knowledge of Hebrew, he produced a corrected Septuagint. He wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Bible. In "De principiis" ("On First Principles"), he articulated one of the first philosophical expositions of Christian doctrine. He interpreted scripture allegorically and showed himself to be a Neo-Pythagorean, and Neo-Platonist. Like Plotinus, he wrote that the soul passes through successive stages of incarnation before eventually reaching God. Origen held a firm conviction that not a single rational being will be lost to the darkness of ignorance and sin. Even the most recalcitrant sinner, he argued, will eventually attain salvation. He imagined even demons being reunited with God. For Origen, God was the First Principle, and Christ, the Logos, was subordinate to him. LIFE
His dates of birth and death are not known exactly. He was born about 185, most probably in Alexandria. He was born into a Christian family. He is believed to have been educated by his father, Leonides. He used this education to revive and teach, as didaskalos, at the 'catechetical' school in Alexandria in 203, under the jurisdiction of Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria. This was after his father died a martyr in 202 in the persecutions under Septimius Severus. Origen was then seventeen and apparently succeeded Clement of Alexandria who had been driven out of Alexandria by the persecutions. In around 215 he went to Palestine where he was invited to preach by Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus, bishop of Caesarea, evne though he was not ordained. His teaching there was considered a breach of discipline by Demetrius. In 230, he was ordained a priest in Palestine by Bishops Alexander and Theoctistus. This was without the authority of Demetrius who subsequently expelled him from Alexandria. Following his expulsion he moved to Caesarea where he founded a school. He was soon surrounded by pupils. The most distinguished of these, without doubt, was St. Gregory Thaumaturgus who, with his brother Apollodorus, attended Origen's lectures for five years and delivered on leaving him a celebrated "Farewell Address". During the persecution of Decius (250) he was prevented from continuing his writing and he was imprisoned and tortured. After the death of Decius (251) he was released from prison, but his injuries lingered, and he died, probably from the results of these injuries at the age of 69 between 253 and 254. His last days were spent at Tyr, but his reason for going retiring there is not known. He was buried with honor there as a Confessor of the Faith. For a long time his sepulchre, behind the high-altar of the cathedral of Tyr, was visited by pilgrims. Today, as nothing remains of this cathedral except a mass of ruins, the exact location of his tomb is unknown.
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