Papacy began 384 Name Pope of Papacy ended 15 October 412 Died October 15, 412 AD, Egypt | Buried Dominicium, Alexandria Nationality Egyptian Term ended October 15, 412 AD | |
Successor Cyril "Pillar of Faith" Denomination Coptic Orthodox Christian Predecessor Pope Timothy I of Alexandria People also search for Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria | ||
Place of burial Alexandria, Egypt | ||
Pope Theophilus of Alexandria | Wikipedia audio article
Theophilus was the 23rd Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He became Pope at a time of conflict between the newly dominant Christians and the pagan establishment in Alexandria, each of which was supported by a segment of the Alexandrian populace. Edward Gibbon described him as "...the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue, a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood."
Contents
- Pope Theophilus of Alexandria Wikipedia audio article
- Background
- Surviving works
- In popular culture
- Legacy
- References
Background
In 391, Theophilus (according to Rufinus and Sozomen) discovered a hidden pagan temple. He and his followers mockingly displayed the pagan artifacts to the public which offended the pagans enough to provoke an attack on the Christians. The Christian faction counter-attacked, forcing the pagans to retreat to the Serapeum. A letter was sent by the emperor that Theophilus should grant the offending pagans pardon, but destroy the temple; according to Socrates Scholasticus, a contemporary of his, the latter aspect (the destruction of the temple) was added as a result of heavy solicitation for it by Theophilus.
Scholasticus goes on to state that:
The destruction of the Serapeum was seen by many ancient and modern authors as representative of the triumph of Christianity over other religions. According to John of Nikiu in the 7th century, when the philosopher Hypatia was lynched and flayed by a mob of Alexandrian Coptic monks, they acclaimed Theophilus's nephew and successor Cyril as "the new Theophilus, for he had destroyed the last remains of idolatry in the city".
Theophilus turned on the followers of Origen after having supported them for a time. He switched his view of God from the incorporeal view of God held by Origen to the anthropomorphic view held by many local monks who were hostile to his pastoral letter of 399.
He was accompanied by his nephew Cyril to Constantinople in 403 and there presided at the "Synod of the Oak" that deposed John Chrysostom.
On 10 July in the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Synaxarion, there is a commemoration for the 10,000 monks slain on the orders of Pope Theophilus in his paranoid campaign against perceived Origenism and the Four Tall Brethren. His nephew and dynastic successor Cyril was canonized in both Eastern and Western Christendom, with the notable exception of the Assyrian Church of the East, for his articulation and defense of the hypostatic union, his central role at the First Council of Ephesus, and his opposition to Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople.
Surviving works
In popular culture
Theophilus appears in the novel Flow Down Like Silver, Hypatia of Alexandria by Ki Longfellow.
He appears as a character played by Manuel Cauchi in the 2009 film Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenábar.
Legacy
The lunar crater Theophilus was named after him, as part of a group of three lunar craters named after prominent Alexandrian Christians.
Pope Theophilus is venerated as a saint only within the Coptic Church of Alexandria; his sainthood is not recognized by the "Eastern" Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Assyrian Churches.