Didymus the Blind

• He was born ca. 313, and at the age of four, lost his sight entirely.
• He learned to write by means of wooden tablets in which the characters were engraved, and invented engraved writing for the blind.
• Despite the tremendous handicap of lifelong blindness, he amassed an amazing treasure of erudition without ever going to school. He gained a comprehensive and thorough knowledge in philosophy, rhetoric, and mathematics.
• The knowledge of which he gives proof of in his works supposes a bewildering memory. He became so familiar with the Scriptures, that he knew them almost all by heart.
• He attracted people not only by his teachings but also by his asceticism; he lived almost a hermit's life.
• St. Athanasius did not hesitate to appoint him as the

head of the catechetical school of Alexandria. He was the last of its famous teachers, since that celebrated institution closed down after his death.

• He stood in high esteem with the Egyptian anchorites; with St. Anthony in particular, who congratulated him, that, though blind to the perishable world of sense, he was endowed with the eye of an angel to behold the mysteries of God.
• He was visited by St. Anthony several times and by Palladius four times.
• Among his students and friends were Sts. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerome, Rufinus, Palladius.
• St. Jerome mentions Didymus as his magister, praises his learning, and testifies to his influence on the divines of his time in the West and in the East. Rufinus calls him “a prophet” and “apostolic man.”
• He was 85 years old when he died ca. the year 398.

• He interpreted many books of the Bible; a large number of quotations from his work still existing. He followed Origen in the allegorical method of interpretation and textual criticism. 1. Dogmatic Works
• On the Trinity: 3 books written between 381 and 392; still existing.
• On the Holy Spirit: The Greek original lost; the Latin translation still existing.
• Contra Manie: Still existing in 18 short articles.
• Lost dogmatical works 2. Exegetical Works
• Old Testament: Psalms, Job, Isaiah, Zechariah, Proverbs.
• New Testament: Gospels of Matthew and John, Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. His Theology
• The Trinity: He concludes that there is only one operation of the three divine persons. He uses the catch-phrase “one

essence, three hypostases.” He is above all, the theologian of the Trinity.

• The Mother of God: He calls St. Mary 'Theotokos', a title which originated in Alexandria, and he addresses her as 'the perpetual virgin.'
• Original sin: All the children of Adam have inherited the original sin from their parents.
• The influence of Origen can be seen in his doctrines of Christology, the Holy Spirit, and Anthropology.
• He defended the De Principiis of Origen; he was anathematized at the Council of Constantinople in 553 together with Origen and Evagrius Ponticus for their doctrines of the pre-existence of the soul and the Apokatastasis (universal salvation). The sixth council in 680 stigmatized Didymus as a defender of the abominable doctrine of Origen, and the seventh repeated this in 787.
• As a result of the condemnations almost all of his works haveperished.