Peter of Alexandria (d. 311)

What is a Father of the Church?

The honorific title of Fathers of the Church is given to some great theologians who did not limit themselves merely to apologetics, but made it their primary goal to deepen the theological understanding of the faith’s heritage, based on revelation. Most of them were bishops, hence the name Father, originally reserved for bishops within the communities. But some were simple priests, like Jerome, or laypeople, like Tertullian. Later doctrine, to establish membership in the group of Fathers of the Church, identifies fundamental characteristics:– Orthodoxy in doctrine. – Holiness of life. – Approval by the Church. – Belonging to Christian antiquity.The Fathers of the Church distinguished themselves by this last characteristic from the (men and women) doctors of the Church, who lived and taught in the Middle Ages and modern times.The topics of patristics were largely inspired from without and corresponded to a legitimate need of the era. Close contact with Hellenistic philosophy and sapiential doctrine, for example, had facilitated the danger of no longer considering Christianity as a pure divine revelation, based on Sacred Scripture and apostolic tradition, but of incorrectly interpreting it with gnostic syncretistic speculations.Moreover, since the earliest times, a gnosis, which in its essence was absolutely pagan, attempted to infiltrate Christianity, abusing the allegorical exegesis of Sacred Scripture to validate its intricate reasoning about the creation and redemption of the world, mixing the genuine heritage of revelation with pagan theories of strong dualistic tint.Faced with the danger of gnosticism, it was necessary to precisely determine the limits of Christian faith and the sources of revelation, to definitively fix the number of those writings that constituted the norm of faith and morality (= canon), establishing a precise number of books in the canon of Sacred Scripture. With the aim of clarifying even further the divine inspiration precisely for these Scriptures and reserving the authentic interpretation exclusively to the bishop.The arbitrary biblical exegesis of individual heretics was thus opposed as a norm and as the sole legitimate interpretation of the Scriptural understanding in the spirit of apostolic tradition (Traditio).The only criterion that could guarantee the pure conservation of the revealed patrimony, transmitted by the apostles, resided in the continuity of the episcopal tradition, which remained uninterrupted through apostolic succession. Therefore, the Fathers of the Church emphasized with extreme firmness that true Christian knowledge can only be that which includes faith in the sense of apostolic tradition. Orthodoxy can only be found in union with the bishops, the legitimate successors of the apostles. Whoever separates from the bishop is certainly in error.Christian scientific theology was born precisely from the contrast with gnosis and other heretical doctrines. Its themes essentially concerned the person and work of Christ (Christology), the salvific work of Christ (Soteriology), and his relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Trinity Doctrine). These were, in fact, the main topics that engaged theological meditation in the centuries that followed. And so, when we approach Mariology in the Patristic period, it relates and complements the truth about Christ, corresponds to the history of salvation, and evokes the various relations of Mary with the persons of the Most Holy Trinity. Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Word, and Temple of the Spirit.The Bishop Peter of AlexandriaAfter directing the Catechetical School of Alexandria, he was elected bishop of this city around the year 300. He died as a martyr in 311. Only fragments of several works survive, in Greek and in the ancient Eastern versions. A homily on Christmas, much later attributed to him, was preserved in Arabic under a pseudonym. The Marian fragment we report belonged to the work On Divinity, now lost. This passage was publicly read at the Council of Ephesus in 431, confirming the correct doctrine about the hypostatic union of the two natures in the Word.On DivinityThe Evangelist also affirms the truth, saying: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is to say, from the moment the angel greeted the Virgin thus: “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” That expression: “The Lord is with you” here, in Gabriel’s mouth, must be understood in place of: “The God of the Word is with you.” Indeed, it indicates the Word who was generated in the womb and became flesh, as written: “The Spirit of God will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called Son of God.”The Word of God, however, became flesh in the Virgin’s womb without relation to man, by the will of that God who can do all things. He did not need the work and presence of a man: in fact, the virtue of God that covered the Virgin together with the Holy Spirit that descended upon her acted much more powerfully than the virtue of a man.(De deitate, I,1,2,39)To deepen the study of Patristic Mariology, consult the Encyclical *Redemptoris Mater* by John Paul II, which places Mary at the heart of the early Church’s theological tradition.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and Graduate Studies in Mariology.