Saint Alexander of Jerusalem

Almost everything known of Alexander comes from Eusebius of Caesarea, who had the advantage of reading his letters. ² Book VI of the Church History quotes four of them, to the church of Antioch, to the people of Antinoe, to Origen, and to Demetrius of Alexandria, and Eusebius says that letters of this kind were kept "in the library at Ælia, which was established by Alexander." ² Jerome, writing later, knew the same letters and added a few titles. ³

Butler says that Alexander studied in the great Christian school of Alexandria, under Pantaenus and then Clement, and that Origen was a fellow student; the Catholic Encyclopedia passes on the last point as Butler's. ¹⁴ Alexander's own words bear out the first part. Writing to Origen, he recalled "those blessed fathers who have trodden the way before us, with whom we shall soon be; Pantænus, the truly blessed man and master, and the holy Clement, my master and benefactor." ²

He was first a bishop in Cappadocia. ²³ Eusebius does not name the city, and Butler says only that it was "a certain city." ⁴ Eusebius counts him among those who "endured courageously the persecution" under the emperor Severus and survived it, and says that it was his standing as a confessor that later made him worthy of Jerusalem. ² Butler dates his confession to 204 and says he was held for several years, until the reign of Caracalla began in 211. ⁴ The Catholic Encyclopedia instead puts the imprisonment "in the time of Alexander Severus," an emperor who came to power some years later. ¹

One letter survives from those years. When Asclepiades, himself a confessor, became bishop of Antioch, Alexander wrote: "Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ, to the blessed church of Antioch, greeting in the Lord. The Lord has made my bonds during the time of my imprisonment light and easy, since I learned that, by the Divine Providence, Asclepiades... has undertaken the bishopric." ² He sent it by Clement, "the blessed presbyter, a man virtuous and approved," who, he said, had "strengthened and built up the Church of the Lord" while he was there. ² Butler takes this to mean that Clement looked after Alexander's people while their bishop was in chains. ⁴

Eusebius tells how he came to stay in Jerusalem. Narcissus, its bishop, was too old to carry out his duties, and "the Providence of God called to the office with him, by a revelation given him in a night vision," Alexander, who was then bishop elsewhere. ² Alexander set out from Cappadocia "in consequence of a vow and for the sake of information in regard to its places." ² In Jerusalem a second revelation told the most zealous of the faithful that if they went outside the gates they would receive the bishop God had chosen for them, and with the consent of the neighboring bishops they "constrained him to remain." ²

Jerome tells it a little differently: it was revealed "to Narcissus and many of his clergy" that a bishop would enter the city the next morning, and when it happened the bishops of Palestine gathered and Alexander "took with him the helm of the church of Jerusalem." ³ Butler dates the arrival to 212, after his release, and calls the gathering of bishops a council. ⁴ The Catholic Encyclopedia stresses that the arrangement had "the consent of all the bishops of Palestine." ¹

The two bishops governed together. Alexander ended a letter to the people of Antinoe in Egypt with a greeting from his colleague: "Narcissus salutes you, who held the episcopate here before me, and is now associated with me in prayers, being one hundred and sixteen years of age; and he exhorts you, as I do, to be of one mind." ² Jerome gives the letter's title as On the Peace of the Church. ³

Alexander gathered a collection of books at Jerusalem, or Ælia, as Eusebius calls the city. ² He says that the letters of the learned men of that age "have been kept until our time in the library at Ælia, which was established by Alexander," and adds: "We have been able to gather from that library material for our present work." ² Butler describes it as "a great library, consisting of the writings and letters of eminent men." ⁴ The Catholic Encyclopedia singles it out for "especial praise," and the Roman Martyrology names the library first among the things he did for the Holy City, together with a school he established. ¹⁵

Clement of Alexandria dedicated a book to him. Jerome lists among Clement's works "one book which he addressed to Alexander bishop of Jerusalem." ³

The friendship that cost him most was with Origen. When war drove Origen out of Alexandria, he went to Caesarea in Palestine, and the bishops there asked him to preach and explain the Scriptures in church although he was not yet ordained. ² Demetrius, his bishop at Alexandria, protested, and Alexander and Theoctistus of Caesarea wrote back to him: "He has stated in his letter that such a thing was never heard of before, neither has hitherto taken place, that laymen should preach in the presence of bishops. I know not how he comes to say what is plainly untrue." ² They named three other bishops who had done the same, and added, "probably this has been done in other places unknown to us." ²

Some years later, when Origen passed through Palestine on church business, he was ordained a presbyter at Caesarea; Eusebius says by "the bishops of Cesarea and Jerusalem," and Jerome names Theoctistus and Alexander. ²³ Demetrius then wrote against Origen to the bishops everywhere and, Eusebius says, "dared to include with him in these accusations those who had raised him to the presbyterate." ² Jerome says Alexander wrote a letter in Origen's defense against Demetrius. ³

Eusebius says that Alexander and Theoctistus "attended on him constantly, as their only teacher, and allowed him to expound the Divine Scriptures." ² In the letter to Origen quoted above, Alexander wrote that it was "the will of God, that the ancestral friendship existing between us should remain unshaken; nay, rather should be warmer and stronger." ² Butler adds that Origen testifies Alexander excelled the other bishops of his day "in mildness and in the sweetness of his discourses." ⁴

The emperor Decius began a persecution of the churches in which Pope Fabian died at Rome. ² Alexander, by now very old, was taken to Caesarea, the seat of the governor. ² Eusebius writes that he was "brought again on Christ's account before the governor's judgment seat in Cæsarea, and having acquitted himself nobly in a second confession was cast into prison, crowned with the hoary locks of venerable age." ² After that confession, "he fell asleep in prison, and Mazabanes became his successor in the bishopric of Jerusalem." ² Babylas of Antioch died the same way in the same persecution. ²³

Dionysius of Alexandria, writing soon afterward to Pope Cornelius, put it in one line: "the blessed Alexander having been confined in prison, passed away happily." ² Jerome says that he "received the crown of martyrdom for confessing Christ," and Butler that he "died in chains at Caesarea, about the end of the year 251," and is styled a martyr by Epiphanius, Jerome and the martyrologies. ³⁴ The Roman Martyrology today calls him bishop and martyr. ⁵

The Catholic Encyclopedia adds a story that Eusebius does not tell. It says that "the historians" described his white hair and holiness as "a double crown for him in captivity," that he survived many tortures, and that when wild beasts were brought to devour him "some licked his feet, and others their impress on the sand of the arena." ¹ It dates his death in prison to 251. ¹

None of the sources used for this page names Saint Alexander of Jerusalem the patron of anything, and none is supplied here. ¹⁴⁵ He is remembered as a bishop and martyr of Jerusalem and as the founder of its library. ²⁵

Saint Alexander's feast is March 18, the day on which the Roman Martyrology commemorates him. ⁵ The Catholic Encyclopedia gives the same date for the Latin Church and December 22 for the Greeks, and Butler records the Greeks keeping him on both May 16 and December 22. ¹⁴

He went to Jerusalem to see the holy places and was not allowed to go home. ² The rest of his life was spent in a church he had not chosen, beside an old man who could no longer do the work, and the letter in which he passes on that man's greeting asks only that its readers be of one mind. ²

Much of what reaches us of the early Church reached Eusebius through the books Alexander kept. ² He wrote of his own teachers as the blessed fathers who had gone ahead, "with whom we shall soon be," and his friendship with Origen held when standing by him brought accusations on himself. ²

He was a prisoner twice, and from his first prison he wrote that good news about another church had made his chains light. ² The second time he was an old man, and he did not come out. ² Eusebius says he fell asleep, and the Church calls him a martyr. ²⁵