Alexander (+250)

Biography

However, as soon as he arrived with his former disciple, Clement had to replace him, since Alexander was imprisoned accused of the crime of proselytism. He spent several years in prison. When he left, he marched towards the Holy Land never to return. Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, was already old and the Judeo-Christians gave him a lot of problems. Alexander, who had bad memories of the officials and prisons of Cappadocia, allowed himself to be convinced and became his helper. He succeeded Narcissus upon his death. The new bishop was quick to restore favored treatment towards Origen, a former classmate of his who had been expelled from Alexandria. He received him into his diocese, ordained him a priest and provided him with a worthy refuge in Caesarea, a place where the great writer could continue his teachings and complete the immense work that he had to bequeath to posterity. As far as the Judeo-Christian faithful were concerned, Alexander did not cure them of their nostalgia for the Old Testament, but he at least helped to ensure that the neophytes did not associate with them by removing precepts such as impure foods from their minds. He also had the merit of founding a library where the most valuable books of his time were gathered. Origen said of him: “I have never found a more kind and sweet-natured bishop.” He was arrested during the persecutions of Decius: “Crowned with white hair,” Eusebius writes, “he testified to the faith before the Praetorium, and died chained in a prison in Caesarea.”