Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of "Pope Achillas of Alexandria"

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⭐ Core Definition: Catechetical School of Alexandria

The Catechetical School of Alexandria was a school of Christian theologians and bishops and deacons in Alexandria. The teachers and students of the school (also known as the Didascalium) were influential in many of the early theological controversies of the Christian church. It was one of the two major centers of the study of biblical exegesis and theology during Late Antiquity, the other being the School of Antioch.

According to Jerome the Alexandrian school was founded by John Mark the Apostle. The earliest recorded dean was supposedly Athenagoras (176). He was succeeded by Pantaenus 181, who was succeeded as head of the school by his student Clement of Alexandria in 190.

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👉 Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of Pope Achillas of Alexandria

Achillas was the 18th Patriarch of Alexandria, reigning from 312 to 313.

He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and was renowned for his knowledge and piety; this was why Pope Theonas had ordained him priest and appointed him head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria upon the departure of Pierius. He was apparently very highly thought of for his work in Greek philosophy and theological science, as Pope Athanasius later described him by the honorific "Achillas the Great".

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Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 150c. 215 AD), was a schematic Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially stopped any veneration of Clement of Alexandria in the 10th century. Nonetheless, he is still sometimes referred to as "Saint Clement of Alexandria" by both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic authors.

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Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of Catechetical School of Antioch

The Catechetical School of Antioch was one of the two major Christian centers of the study of biblical exegesis and theology during Late Antiquity; the other was the School of Alexandria. This group was known by this name because the advocates of this tradition were based in the city of Antioch in Roman Syria (modern-day Turkey), one of the major cities of the ancient Roman Empire. Although there were early interpreters from Antioch, like Theophilus of Antioch, the proper school of exegesis at Antioch belongs to the period of the 4th and 5th centuries.

While the Christian intellectuals of Alexandria emphasized the allegorical interpretation of Scriptures and tended toward a Christology that emphasized the union of the human and the divine, those in Antioch held to a more literal and occasionally typological exegesis and a Christology that emphasized the distinction between the human and the divine in the person of Jesus Christ. They rejected notions of instantaneous creation held by other figures such as Augustine, and instead literally held to the notion of the progressive creation of the Genesis creation narrative: those things created on the sixth day did not exist in the fifth, that made on the fifth day did not exist in the fourth, and so on. Advocates included Acacius of Caesarea, Severian of Gabala, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and others.

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Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of Coptic Theological Seminary

The Coptic Theological Seminary is an institution of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria based in Cairo and with branches and affiliated seminaries throughout the world. The seminary claims historical continuity with the historic Catechetical School of Alexandria of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and regards the 1893 establishment as a reestablishment of this school.

Directors of the Coptic Theological Seminary in Cairo include Yusuf Manqariyus from 1893 to 1918, Habib Girgis. Graduates include Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

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Catechetical School of Alexandria in the context of Pantaenus

Saint Pantaenus the Philosopher (Greek: Πάνταινος; died c. 200) was a Sicilian theologian and a significant figure in the Catechetical School of Alexandria from around AD 180. This school was the earliest catechetical school, and became influential in the development of Christian theology.

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