Alexander Saint, Bishop of Cappadocia

Alexander Saint, bishop of Cappadocia, and afterward of Jerusalem: first, as colleague of the aged Narcissus, and afterward alone. Eusebius (lib. 6, ch. 11) gives an account of his call to the episcopacy of Jerusalem, and of his service there. He protected Origen, whose fellow-disciple he had been, and ordained him priest. Under Alexander Severus he was imprisoned for seven years. He suffered a second persecution under Decius, and died in prison at Caesarea in 251. He is the first bishop who has been a coadjutor. He was a friend of literature, and established a library at Jerusalem. He is commemorated by the Roman Church on March 18; by the Greek, on December 22. — Dupin, Eccl. Writers, 3d cent. Alexander, Saint, patriarch of Alexandria, succeeded Achillas A.D. 312 or 313, and his appointment excited the envy and hatred of Arius, who had himself aspired to the episcopal throne. His doctrines were attacked by Arius, whom, after mildly exhorting to return to the truth, he cited before an assembly of the clergy at Alexandria, and, on his refusing to recant his errors, excommunicated him and his followers. This sentence was afterward confirmed by above a hundred bishops in the Council of Alexandria, A.D. 320. One of his epistles against Arius may be found in Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 1, 6, and another in Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. 1, 4. He died April 17, 326.