Part I. The story: 3. The School of Alexandria

The School of Alexandria

The popes can be likened to the apex of the pyramids which however lofty, can not but rest on the solid edifice below it. The peoples together with their lay-teachers, their priests and their bishops form this grand Pyramid. Foremost among the supporters of St. Mark’s Successors, were the deans and the teachers of the Catechetical School of Alexandria founded by the Evangelist himself. Again, we find some of the most illustrious names in Christendom. Here is the witness of a present day writer : “The battle was fought, not in Smyrna nor in any of the seven churches of Asia, but in the theological school of Alexandria, the most civilized city of the time, where Jews and Christians met on equal footing, Origen and Clement of Alexandria were the protagonists in the drama. They wrestled with angels, delved into the mysterious origins of Christianity, consulted the oldest books, hurled anathemas on the pagans. When they completed their work they had laid the foundations of the faith, and built up its doctrinal structure almost to the height which it reaches today.” Adding elsewhere : “Alexandria was the nerve-centre of Christianity.”⁽¹⁾

(1) R. Payne : “The Holy Fire”, pub. in New York 1957, pp. 22 & 171.

Here, it is imperative to mention but one more masterlight: he is Didymus entitled “The Blind Seer of Alexandria”. For though he lost his eyesight at four, he prayed for inward Light. His prayers received God’s Uplift, endowing him with such steadfast faith as enabled him to become one of the foremost erudites even in Alexandria. Such was his sparkling that Abba Athanasius the Apostolic appointed him Dean of the School of Alexandria. He invented a method by which the blind could learn : carving the letters on wood so that they could feel them with their fingers and thus read them. In this method, he anticipated Braille by fifteen centuries. But the wars, the persecutions and the great upheavals which overtook Egypt, obliterated his method alongside with many of the great creations of the mind.

This school continued to be the Lighthouse of Christian Learning until A.D. 451, when the first split between the churches happened as a result of the nefarious council of Chalcedon. Consequently, the emperors of Constantinople, in their persecutions against the Copts, closed the school, carrying to their own capital whatever books they could lay hands on. Those responsible for the Coptic Church took whatever remained of the books, and set up the centre of learning in the monastery of the great St. Macari (Macarius of Egypt) in Wadi n-Natrun in the western desert where it continued for several centuries. But the numerous raids and massacres recurrent in that area by the nomadic tribes gave little rest to the monks and their monasteries so that the Great Light gradually became like unto that of a candle. Nevertheless, God’s Grace kept it alight for the ages to come. One of the most touching incidents of the Unconquerable Buoyancy of the human spirit is that towards the end of 1970, there were five aged monks in St. Macari’s monastery. One evening, the five of them sat reproaching the great saint that shortly his monastery will be closed since they were all well advanced in years and no new blood seems to be forthcoming. A week elapsed after this reproach of love when lo ! eight young men rang the bell of the monastery. They walked in declaring to the five elders that they came to live with them and learn from them. Since then, their number grew to thirty two. New cells and guest houses were built on what used to be the rampart of the monastery. The ardour and the kindliness of these monks attract hundreds of peoples to visit the monastery especially during Advent, Lent, and the days commemorating the Saint’s departure from this world, the building of the first church in his name, or some specific he performed. The continued Divine Providence has made the western desert to become once more a sanctuary of learning and intense spiritual zeal. And the School re-opened by Kyrillos V has gained momentum under the impetus of Kyrillos VI, and Shenouda III (present-day Pope).