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Alexander of Hierapolis, Bishop of Mabbug
V Century
Like many early
Nestorians, Alexander saw himself as a
defender of Orthodoxy against the
Apollinarian heresy.
(As bishop, he famously expunged the name of Julian,
a much revered predecessor in the see of
Hierapolis,
upon learning that he might have held Apollinarian views.)
He participated in deposing
St. Cyril of Alexandria, and
became the most prominent hardline member of the pro-Nestorian
"Oriental Party" of bishops. When Cyril accepted the
compromise proposal under which everyone would affirm
the creed of the First Council without being required
to express (or repudiate) their opinions on controversial
matters, Alexander alone objected, and soon broke communion
between his diocese and the rest of the world, even his
Nestorian friends. This situation eventually attracted
the attention of the state; Alexander was removed from office and
exiled to the mines in Egypt, where he died. It was generally
said even by his enemies that he was an exemplary Christian
and cleric in all respects except his excessive (and to us
misguided) zeal.
Norman Hugh Redington
- ABOUT:
-
1912 Catholic Encyclopedia: (Read with caution)
-
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:
Alexander von Hierapolis.
From Biographisch-Bibliographisches
Kirchenlexikon, 1990.
--- Bautz
-
Acacius of Berea:
Epistola ad Alexandrum Hierapolitanum.
PG 84:647.
- Alexander's church in Sergiopolis:
St. Sergius
was martyred at Rusafa in the
Syrian wilderness. Alexander constructed
a shrine at the remote site, around which grew the
town of Sergiopolis.
- Elizabeth Kay Fowden:
The Barbarian Plain --
Saint Sergius Between Rome and Iran, (1999).
University of California, 1999.
- ASSOCIATED PEOPLE:
- WORKS: Heretical; read with caution.
- Epistolæ 1-27.
PG 84, passim.
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