Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Anatolius and Minor Writers/Alexander of Cappadocia/Translator's Biographical Notice

by Alexander of Cappadocia

Alexander of Cappadocia.

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Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[a.d. 170–233–251.] Alexander was at first bishop of a church in Cappadocia, but on his visiting Jerusalem he was appointed to the bishopric of the church there, while the previous bishop Narcissus was alive, in consequence of a vision which was believed to be divine.^[1] During the Decian persecution he was thrown into prison at Cæsarea, and died there,^[2] a.d. 251. The only writings of his which we know are those from which the extracts are made.^[3]

Footnotes

1. Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi. 11. [Narcissus must have been born about a.d. 121. Might have known Polycarp.]
2. Ibid., vi. 46. [Narcissus lived till a.d. 237, and died a martyr, aged 116.]
3. [He was a pupil of Pantænus, continued under Clement, and defended Origen against the severity of Demetrius. Two dates which are conjectural are adjusted to these facts. I find it difficult to reconcile them with those implied by Eusebius.]