St. Alexander of Alexandria
Encyclical Letter Against Arius
The first canonical condemnation of the Arian doctrine, c. 319
Contents4 sections
On the letter
Editor's note
When the presbyter Arius would not be silenced after his local deposition by the synod of Egyptian bishops in 318, St. Alexander wrote this circular letter to the bishops of the whole Church, warning them not to receive Arius or his followers, and stating the Faith of Alexandria on the question of the Son's relation to the Father. The letter is preserved in full by the early-fifth-century historian Socrates; the selections below give the dogmatic substance.
Summary by PurifyWritten by Purify, not St. Alexander of Alexandria's words.
Six years before Nicaea, in his own city, Alexander had already articulated the answer the Ecumenical Council would receive into its Symbol. The Council did not invent the homoousios so much as ratify the Faith that Alexander, Athanasius, and the Egyptian church had been preaching all along.
The teaching of Arius
Alexander, Encyclical Letter (preserved in Socrates, H.E. I.6)
Arius and Achilles have lately made a conspiracy, and emulating the ambition of Colluthus, have turned out far worse than he. For Colluthus, indeed, who reproves the practices of these men, found some pretext for his evil purpose. But these, beholding his trafficking in Christ, have endured no longer to be subject to the Church; but, having built for themselves dens of robbers, hold their assemblies in them.
These men, then, are turning aside from the truth, and are introducing a doctrine impious and full of audacity: that the Son of God is not always, but was made out of things that are not; for that there was a time when the Word of God was not; and that He is mutable in His own nature, and admits of change like all the other rational beings; that He is a creature, and a work, and not begotten in His proper nature from the Father.
The teaching of the Church
Alexander, Encyclical Letter (continued)
Against this we set the apostolic faith. We believe, as the divine Scriptures teach us, in one unbegotten Father, who has His being eternally, and is the cause of His own life; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten not from things which are not, but from the Father who is, not in any corporeal manner, neither by efflux nor by division, as Sabellius and Valentinus thought, but in a manner unspeakable and inexplicable.
He is not in the manner that a thing made is, neither in the manner that a creature is, but as the proper offspring of the Father. We believe that He is, as the Father, eternally, and that the Father did not become the Father except by the begetting of the Son, nor was God ever without His own Word and Wisdom, but the One always had the Other. We confess therefore concerning Him that He is unchangeable, immutable, in all things like to the Father, only excepting the unbegottenness, perfect Son of perfect Father, equal in glory.
Apolytikion of St. Alexander (Tone 4)
The Church's hymnSung by the Church about St. Alexander of Alexandria, not written by him.
Equal in character to the apostles, and successor to their thrones, you found in deeds an ascent to divine contemplation, O Father Alexander, who proclaimed and preserved the word of the Truth without blemish; for the sake of the Faith you fought even to the shedding of your blood. Hieromartyr in your trials, intercede with Christ our God to save our souls.