St. Theophilus of Alexandria

• St. Theophilus was the third successor to St. Athanasius and the predecessor of St. Cyril, his nephew, as pope of Alexandria.
• He shepherded the Church of Egypt for 28 years, fully conscious of the important role that his see had played in the history of both Church and empire.
• He was undoubtedly a man of great intellectual ability. He made his tremendous influence felt in all the political questions that in his day affected either Church or state.
• Three important events are especially connected with his name:

1. The decay of paganism in Egypt.
2. The controversy over Origen.
3. The deposition and exile of St. John Chrysostom.

• An ardent admirer of Origen until 399 and a friend of his adherents like John of Jerusalem, he later

condemned him.

• It seems that St. Theophilus in one of his Paschal Letters had expressed himself in favor of God's incorporeity. Thereupon some monks conceived grave doubts regarding his Orthodoxy and sent a commission to examine him. To forestall a riot by these anthropomorphists and, also anxious for political reasons to come to terms with them he said to them, that as he saw them he beheld the face of God. Thus they imagined that he was anthropomorphist like them.
• The Four Tall Brothers in the Nitrian desert, Dioscurus, Ammon, Eusebius and Euthymus, who were admirers of Origen stirred against him. They went to St. Chrysostom to complain about him before the emperor.
• He condemned Origenism at a synod in Alexandria in 401.
• The empress misused this problem and arranged for the holding of the Synod at Oak in 403 under the presidency of Pope Theophilus that deposed St. John Chrysostom and sent him into exile.
• In all justice, we must remember that most of our information comes from the enemies of Pope Theophilus, especially Palladius, Dialogus de vita Joh. Chrysostomi.
• Arnobius (Conflictus 2,18), Theodoret (Ep. 170), Leo the Great (Ep. 53.63.74), Vigilius Taps. (C. Eut. I, 15) and others regard St. Theophilus as a Father of the Church.
• The Apophthegmata Patrum proves the reputation he enjoyed in monastic circles. He was on excellent terms with the two famous abbots Horsiesios and Ammon, whom he always venerated as his spiritual fathers.
• The Coptic Church celebrates his feast on October 28 (Babah 18 according to the Coptic Calendar), the Syrian Orthodox in the same month.

• He must have been a prominent Church author; his literary bequest was of considerable volume (cf. Theodoret, Ep. 83; Leo M.,Ep. 75; Gelasius,Ep. 42, 3, 3; Gennadius,De vir. ill. 34). Unfortunately, very little remains. 1. Paschal Canon
• He composed a table showing the Easter cycle for the years 380 to 479, which he sent to the victorious Emperor Theodosius about 388 or a little later. 2. Epistles
• Several letters were translated into Latin by St. Jerome and are preserved among his collected epistles.
• Ep. 92 to the bishops of Palestine and Egypt, reporting on a gathering in Alexandria ca. 399 against the Origenists. Two others were addressed in the summer of 400 to Jerome.
• Ep. 97 asking Jerome's aid in hunting out the Origenists.
• Ep. 89 introducing the monk Theodore, who was on his way to Rome.

• The last sent to St. Epiphanius in 401, admonishes that prelate to call a synod to condemn the Origenists.
• A communication to Abbot Horsiesios and another to the Pachomian monks in Phbow.
• We know of many more of his letters. Of some fragments remain, of others nothing. 3. Paschal Letters
• He composed a great number of Paschal Letters: 26, at least, that we know of.
• Three, preserved in translation of Jerome's were issued in 401, 402 and 404 and have an anti-Origenistic tendency, although they also polemize against Apollinaris of Laodicea. 4. Against Origen
• Most probably this was merely a collection of the anti- Origenistic synodical and Paschal Letters. 5. Homilies
• A homily on the judgment is preserved in its Greek text in the Apophthegmata Patrum.
• A homily on Contrition and Abstinence is extant in a Coptic translation.
• A homily on the Cross and the Thief survives also in Coptic.
• A homily on the Institution of the Eucharist is really a discourse of Pope Theophilus directed against the Origenist monks.
• Several homilies extant in Coptic and Ethiopic have not been edited as yet. Of others only fragments remain. The number of fragments preserved in Catenae indicates that Pope Theophilus had a name as an exegete as well. 7. Spurious Writings
• A large number of writings are of doubtful authenticity.
• St. Theophilus calls Christ, “Priest and Sacrificial Lamb, sacrificing and sacrificed, recipient and distributor.”