The School of Alexandria — A Lamp upon the Earth

ByAbouna

With awe we recall the divine providence which planted in the city of Alexandria not only the seeds of faith, but also the fountains of wisdom. Just as the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of fire upon the Apostles, so too did He kindle within Egypt a sacred flame — the School of Alexandria, the first of all Christian academies, and the enduring crown of theological learning.

This school, born from the union of truth and charity, of Scripture and reason, was not content with earthly instruction alone. It sought to consecrate the intellect, not to entertain it — to lead souls to divine contemplation, not idle speculation. In its sacred halls, learned men were not inflated with knowledge, but purified in love. Under its dome, faith sought understanding, and philosophy bowed before the mystery of the Cross.

Who can forget Pantaenus, who first took up the holy task of baptizing the minds of Greeks into the light of Christ? Or Clement, that gentle philosopher, who adorned faith with beauty and drew the learned into the embrace of truth? And Origen, that tireless exegete, whose commentaries echo through the ages like psalms of the intellect, and who dared to ascend the spiritual ladder rung by rung, toward the vision of the eternal Logos.

Not far behind walked Dionysius the Great, a man adorned with both knowledge and episcopal grace, and Didymus the Blind, who though he lost his earthly sight in childhood, saw more with his soul than most men see with their eyes. So deeply was he illuminated by the Word that even the learned Gregory Nazianzen and Jerome sat at his feet like children at the feet of a holy elder. Such was his wisdom that he devised a system of engraved letters for the blind — fifteen centuries before Braille — that no soul might be deprived of the Word that gives life.

Here, in Alexandria, Scripture was translated into Coptic, and the Word of God was preached not only to the ear, but engraved upon the heart. Bishops, scholars, and confessors were formed in this sacred school, and through them the Apostolic Faith was preserved for all the Church. Indeed, the very pillars of the Ecumenical Councils were laid by the hands of sons of Alexandria, who stood boldly against heresies, and preserved the holy doctrines as handed down from the Apostles.

And though the imperial powers of Chalcedon sought to extinguish the voice of Egypt, the fire did not die. Like their fathers before them, the faithful retreated to the deserts of Scetis and Wadi El-Natroun, where the School of the Spirit flourished anew in the monasteries. And in time, like a river that flows from Eden, the Catechetical School rose again — not only in Cairo but now in New Jersey, Los Angeles, and other cities around the world, proclaiming that the wisdom of the Fathers still speaks.

Let us not forget the glory of Alexandria, the city baptized by Mark, anointed by the martyrs, and crowned with the light of theology. For what Athens could not grasp, and what Rome did not preserve, Alexandria cherished — the faith delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 1:3), illumined by the Spirit, and spoken boldly with the authority of love.

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