ON ST. ALEXANDER THE CHARCOAL-BURNER, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
AT COMANA IN PONTUS
Third century.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Alexander the Charcoal-burner, Bishop and Martyr, at Comana in Pontus (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. The situation of that Comana; whence the Saint was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology; the etymology of his surname; his wonderful election from a most abject condition to the priesthood.
Various places called Comana (elsewhere it is written Comana in the plural number) have come to our notice. Among the various For indeed in the Acts of the Councils, published by our John Harduin, volume 1, column 816, in the Council of Constantinople, which was celebrated in the year of Christ 381, among others of the province of Pamphylia there is noted Hesychius of Commacum *. Likewise in volume 2, in the letter of the bishops of the region of Pamphylia to the emperor Leo, at column 733 there is subscribed Ephesius, bishop of Comana. Finally in volume 3, in the subscriptions of the sixth ecumenical council, or the third of Constantinople, held in the year of Christ 680, at column [ ] is found Cosmas .. bishop of the city of Conana (in the Greek it is "of the Conanians, that is, of the Manuians") of the region of Pamphylia. So much for the Comana of Pamphylia.
Known also is a Comana in Pisidia: for in volume 1, column 816, just cited, among the subscriptions of that province is woven in Helladius, priest of Commana. Baudrand has a Comana called "of the Cappadocians," a city of Lesser Armenia. Strabo, printed at Paris in the year 1620, book II, page 521, says: the Antitaurus, in which is situated Comana, a city of upper Cappadocia. But our discourse here is of the Comana in Pontus, together with the Roman Martyrology, which announces our Saint in that very place. Let us therefore see in what part of Pontus that place is situated.
[2] Ferrarius, in his New Topography upon that Martyrology, folio 38 verso, describes Pontic Comana thus: cities of the same name Comana, Comana in Pontus (Com) C.E., that is, an episcopal city, of Cappadocia, in that region which is called Pontic Cappadocia, once noble upon the river Sarus, and among the first, between Cæsarea and Sebastopolis, bordering upon Sebaste. In Harduin, volume XI of the Councils, in the geographical index of bishoprics, at column 699, there is set down "of Comana in Polemoniac Pontus," Κόμανα in the Greek Notitiæ, and in Novella XXVIII, Κώμανα. Pliny, book 6, section 3: Comana, in Cappadocia Secunda. But Strabo, cited above, distinguishes Pontic Comana from the Cappadocian ones, when in book 12, page 557, he writes these things: Above Phanarœa is Comana of Pontus, of the same name with those which are in greater Cappadocia. Those Comanas therefore being rejected which are outside Pontus, as not pertaining to this place, and those being designated which lie in Pontus, it is asked which Comana in Pontus, in which the Roman Martyrology announces our Saint on the authority of St. Gregory of Nyssa, ought here to be understood.
[3] ours is shown to be in Polemoniac Pontus, near Neocæsarea. I read that Pontus, a region of Asia Minor, was threefold; namely Cappadocian Pontus, Galatian Pontus, and Polemoniac Pontus. Cellarius, in the Notitia of the ancient world, volume 2, book 3, chapter 8, page 204, treats at greater length of the division of Pontus into those regions; and he observes on page 205 that its partition was not one only. Now indeed, although neither St. Gregory of Nyssa, who alone and singly is the source, so far as we know, from which were drawn the notices concerning St. Alexander that have flowed down to posterity, nor the Roman Martyrology, which received this from him, so determine the place Comana as to designate it graphically by some proper characteristic appended, by force of which it might be precisely denoted in what part of Pontus that Comana was situated; nevertheless the circumstances speak together silently, and not obscurely indicate that the one and only city of Comana here understood by St. Gregory of Nyssa (to be cited presently) is that which is in Polemoniac Pontus, so called from Polemonium, which city lies upon the Euxine Sea. That Pontic Comana, moreover, lies beside the river Iris, and is near to Neocæsarea, which Ammianus, in the edition of Gronovius, book 27, chapter 12, page 390, called a most renowned city of Polemoniac Pontus. The circumstances, I say, designate this city of Comana: for St. Gregory Thaumaturgus was bishop of that Neocæsarea; but St. Alexander was dwelling at Comana; whose inhabitants, having learned of the miracles which he was working in that region, called Gregory to themselves; and when he had gone thither, there occurred that wonderful election of St. Alexander, as also the rest, which you may see below at number 6 and following. Besides, concerning the situation of these places one may consult the Sacred Geography of Charles of St. Paul, in which at page 205 of the edition of the year 1704 a map is spread out, exhibiting a geographical description of the patriarchate of Constantinople.
[4] [The Saint was entered into the Roman Martyrology from St. Gregory of Nyssa alone.] Of St. Gregory of Nyssa, bishop in Cappadocia, we have treated in volume 2 of March, on the IX day, page * 4 and following; from whom we shall take the deeds of St. Alexander the Charcoal-burner, deeds to be buried in the perpetual darkness of oblivion, had not that holy Father brought them to light in his Oration on the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. To this one man alone, therefore, we owe it that our St. Alexander — known to us from no ancient Calendars of the Saints at all, whether Greek or Latin, but taken up from him by Baronius into the modern Roman Martyrology — has been set forth for public veneration in the Roman Church, his yearly memory being consecrated on this day in these words: At Comana in Pontus, of St. Alexander, bishop, surnamed the Charcoal-burner; who, having attained from a most eloquent Philosopher the eminent knowledge of Christian humility, and having been raised by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus to the throne of that church, was illustrious not only by his preaching, but also by a martyrdom consummated through fire. In relating his deeds, moreover, we use the Paris edition of St. Gregory of Nyssa, which is marked as published in the year 1618.
[5] Who he was, who of his own accord had cast himself into the vile and obscure shadows of Christian humility, For the sake of virtue and whence the surname of Charcoal-burner was given him, learn from the Oration praised above, Laurentius Sifanus being the translator, page 994; where these things are thus described: There was a man in extreme poverty, and with a neglected body, regarding himself alone, and as it were pleasing himself, and rejoicing in that habit: which habit was ridiculous to unskilled eyes. For the matter stood thus: it was not poverty pressing upon him that had brought him to such a kind of life; but he was a certain philosophic man, as his subsequent life indicated, * so much so that he even came at last to martyrdom, his course being finished through fire. But he wished of set purpose to lie hidden, being endowed with a mind too lofty to care for that felicity which is commonly sought after: and he counted the world as nothing, because he was held by the zeal for the sublime and true life. And that he might in the highest degree attain the virtue to which he aspired, he took pains that he should not be known to be such a man, hiding himself by a more contemptible manner of life as by a certain base mask.
[6] And besides, because he was endowed with the flower of exceptional youth, he exercises the voluntary office of a charcoal-burner. he judged it dangerous for one who had proposed to himself the pursuit of continence to lay open the beauty of his body, displaying the happiness of nature as though in a procession. For he knew that such a thing is wont to furnish to very many the occasion of grave offenses and faults. Lest therefore either something should happen to himself unawares, the doing of which he would grieve over, or he should furnish to the eyes of others matter of downfall and offense; for that reason he deliberately surrounds himself with the office of a charcoal-burner, as with a certain deformed mask, whereby both his body might be exercised by labors unto virtue, and his beauty, stained with the filth of the coals, might be covered over, and at the same time the money which he sought from his labors might be dispensed to the fulfilling of the commandments. While St. Alexander was therefore such a man, little indeed in his own eyes, and to the world vile and despised, but truly great before God, it is worth the pains to understand in how wonderful a manner, and not without the singular providence of God, who puts down the mighty from their seat and exalts the humble, that lamp, hitherto under a bushel but afterward set upon a candlestick, shone in the Church of God.
[7] St. Gregory of Nyssa relates the matter from page 992 thus: By St. Gregory Thaumaturgus But afterward, when the fame of such miracles as were believed to be wrought by the power of faith in Christ (by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus) had spread abroad into all parts of the region, all desired to be partakers of that faith which was proved by the testimony of such miracles, and everywhere the preaching went forward; the mystery was (vigorously) exercised, the zeal for the good was intent: since indeed among all the priesthood was being established, that through all things the faith might grow and be increased: for that reason there is sent to him from a certain neighboring city an embassy, that he should come to them, and, a priest being designated, should establish the church which was among them. Now the name of the city was Comana: and all in common entreated him, begging that this favor be granted them, that this great man should be willing to be their guest. When therefore he had come to them, and, having conversed with them some days, had by his words and by his deeds still more inflamed their zeal toward the mystery; when it was now time to bring to its issue that business also on account of which the legates had been sent to him, and to designate someone as the chief priest of their church: then indeed the judgments of all the chief men and magistrates of the city were occupied in this, that they should anxiously and curiously inquire and ask who seemed to surpass the rest in eloquence, in birth, and in the remaining splendor of life. For they thought that, since the great Gregory too was heaped with these good things, he who should be chosen for this office ought not to be without them either.
[8] in a wonderful manner is elected But when they were split in their votes into many parts, and some preferred and put forward one, others another, that great man was awaiting that some counsel should be divinely supplied to him for the business proposed. And just as Samuel, in choosing a king, is reported not to have been moved by the beauty nor by the greatness of bodies, but to have sought a kingly soul, even if it should perchance be found in a contemned body: in the same manner he too, neglecting the partialities toward each one of those who were being put forward, looked to this one thing only, whether anyone even before his declaration bore the priesthood by the industry of his life and by virtue in his manners. But when they indeed were bringing forward
those concerning whom the vote was to be cast, each making honorable mention of the man whom he was promoting; and when at this point he exhorted them to take account also of the more lowly (as regards the outward appearance of their life) — for someone might even among such be found who should excel in the goods of the soul those who were preeminent in the splendor of life — a certain one of those who presided over the casting of the votes took that opinion of the great man as an affront and a mockery, that, when none of those who were preferred to the rest both in eloquence and in dignity and in the manifest splendor of the resources of their life should be admitted to the priesthood, some men out of the sedentary artisans, and such as sustained life by the labor of their hands, should be esteemed more fit and suitable for such an office; and at the same time, jeering with a certain derision, he said to him: If you command this, that these men of such quality, who have been chosen out of the whole number of the citizens, be passed over, and that we take up someone out of the refuse and the lowest rabble for the administration of the priesthood, who should preside over such a city, then it will be time for you next to call Alexander the Charcoal-burner to the priesthood, and, the transfer being made to him, if it seem good, we citizens will all agree in our votes among ourselves.
[9] to the priesthood among the people of Comana And he indeed was speaking these things in disparagement of his opinion, and by this feigned and jeering vote was blaming and reprehending the utmost and exact diligence used in the foregoing. But by these words a great thought came into the mind of the other, that not without divine prompting had mention of Alexander been made among the rest by those deliberating. And, Who, said he, is Alexander, of whom you have made mention? Then, when a certain one of those who were present had with laughter brought the aforesaid man into the midst — clothed with cheap and filthy rags not even over his whole body, and at the same time by the things that appeared, his hands alike and his face and the rest of his body stained and befouled with coals, showing his gain-getting by that craft — to the rest indeed Alexander, standing thus in the midst, was matter for laughter. But that spectacle greatly astonished that perspicacious eye: which St. Gregory of Nyssa then sets forth, describing St. Alexander, and which we have already given from him. Wherefore let us pass on to those things which the same holy Father records on page 995 concerning his promotion to the priesthood:
[10] After therefore he had led him away from the council, and had diligently searched out and inquired into all things concerning his state and condition, to be exercised. he hands him over to his household, bidding them carry out what the matter required. But he himself, returning into the council, taking his argument from the present deliberation, was instructing the assembled, setting before them discourses on the office of the priesthood, and through these prescribing a life joined with virtue. And he persevered in such discourses, detaining the assembly, until those who were serving him, having executed their orders, came in, bringing with them Alexander, who had both wiped off by a washing the unpleasantness of the soot, and was clothed and adorned with the garments of that great man. For they had been bidden to see to these things. But when all had turned to Alexander, and were fixed in wonder at that new appearance, Nothing new, said the master to them, has happened to you, if you have been deceived by your eyes, and have committed to the senses alone the judgment of beauty. For the sense is a fallacious and uncertain judge of the truth of things, of itself shutting off the approach to the depth of mind and understanding. And at the same time it was altogether the endeavor of the demon, the enemy of piety, that the vessel of election, covered over by men's ignorance, should be idle and useless, and that the Man should not come forth into the midst who was to overturn his princedom. Having spoken these things, when he had made him fit for this office according to the accustomed manner and the solemn rites, he dedicates the Man to God through the priesthood.
Annotata* l. of Comana
* There is added in the Greek "and loftier than the rest," that is, and more sublime than the rest
§ II. The force of his speech proved by a vision; the eulogy of Sts. Alexander and Gregory Thaumaturgus; the time of his life; whether he was a philosopher, and the first bishop of the city of Comana; the credit of the things narrated of him.
His great force in speaking proved by a portent. But when all were gazing upon the new Priest, and he was asked to deliver some discourse to the church, straightway at the beginning of his administration Alexander showed that Gregory's judgment concerning him had not been false. For his discourse was full of understanding and of weighty sentences, though less adorned with the flowers of speech. Whence a certain insolent young man from Attica, staying among them, derided the unpolished diction, because it was not adorned with that exact and superfluous care which the Athenians employed in speaking. He, they say, was corrected by a certain divine vision, when he had beheld a flock of doves shining with a certain incredible beauty, and had heard someone who said that these were the doves of Alexander, which he had derided. Having said these things concerning our Saint, St. Gregory of Nyssa then goes on, and praises St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, because he chose St. Alexander in so wonderful a manner; and he also proclaims Alexander, because he was so chosen by that Saint, extolling the one in the other.
[12] Which, he says, of these two should one rather admire? That that man was not moved by the vote of those The eulogy of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who were preeminent in dignity, nor was carried away along with them to the testimonials of the nobles and the chief men? Or is it more fitting to admire the riches hidden among the coals, upon which straightway there followed a testimony of right judgment published by God through the vision of the orator? For to me indeed each of these seems in itself to be of such a kind that they are, as it were, in contest between themselves and appear to hold a struggle for the first place; and that among all those things which are celebrated under the name of miracle they hold almost the foremost rank. For that he set himself against the partialities of the nobles was the most manifest indication of a constant, upright, and lofty soul, by which all things that appear throughout the world were equally despised, whether they seemed to approach magnificence and splendor, or also lowliness and obscurity: and since he assigned the first place to virtue alone, and judged that a vicious life alone was to be rejected, he looked upon as nothing all things whatsoever that are judged in this world worthy either of any pursuit or of any contempt. And this indeed he is shown to have done at that time also.
[13] and of St. Alexander. For when he was taking pains to find one pleasing and worthy to God, he did not think riches, nor dignity, nor the splendors of this world — of which things none is enumerated in the reckoning of good things by divine Scripture — to be suitable matters which he should admit for testimony. It is not therefore this alone which is worthy of praise and admiration, that he rejected the partialities of the chief men, but also that by the things which followed he himself surpassed them. For he who merely rejects an unfit and less suitable opinion, and does not add that which the matter demands, prevents indeed an evil, but does not accomplish a good. But he who, besides not consenting to the worse, also finds the good, by both accomplishes the good, since he both gives no hearing to the evil and brings the good to effect: so that by both reckonings a benefit from the great Gregory befell the city, who both turned aside that which was being done amiss by them through ignorance, and by his own act laid open the good hidden among them. But now what shall we say of the time at which the history which we have related from St. Gregory of Nyssa took place, and accordingly at which our holy Bishop and martyr flourished?
[14] He flourished in the third century, Baronius wove it into his Annals at the year of Christ 233, number 22 and following. A modern French collector of Monuments for Ecclesiastical History, volume 4, article 9, page 333, affirms that, from the fact that the things which he had narrated concerning St. Gregory Thaumaturgus indicate that the Christians enjoyed full peace and entire liberty, it can scarcely be doubted that they happened under the reign of Philip, who reigned from the year 244 to the year 249. The same Baronius, at the year 233, number 28, says that he was crowned with martyrdom under Decius; but he cites no witness for the statement. Castellanus in his Martyrology appends to his announcement the year 251; but the new French biographer, to his historical collection concerning the Saint, about the year 248. Our Louis de Menil, in the work which is entitled The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church, book 6, at the year of Christ 244, number 17, likewise assigns his martyrdom to the Decian persecution. The testimonies of the more recent authors therefore agree well enough among themselves; but the consent of the more ancient is wanting. Baronius indeed asserts these things at the year 253, number 138: Gregory of Nyssa, as regards the persecution stirred up in Pontus, adds to what has been said that our Alexander, the bishop of the city of Comana, also suffered .., and relates that he consummated his martyrdom by fire; but among those things which Gregory pathetically describes from page 999 concerning that horrible persecution (understand that of Decius, the successor of Philip, in the years 250 and 251) I find no trace expressed concerning the martyrdom of St. Alexander the Charcoal-burner.
[15] And indeed, since that great man (St. Gregory Thaumaturgus), having noticed and considered the weakness and frailty of human nature, in that most men could not contend even unto death for piety, by which also he is crowned with martyrdom; but in what year, is uncertain. was the author to the church of avoiding for a little while that terrible onset and assault .. and, in order that men might most of all be persuaded that it brings no peril to the soul if one preserve the faith even by flight, was by his own example the author of withdrawing (in the same place, page 1001), himself before others avoiding the onset of danger by withdrawing; whence is it established that our Saint did not then do the same in the church of Comana which St. Gregory was doing in that of Neocæsarea? In what year, therefore, he obtained the laurel of martyrdom we do not see whence it can be safely enough determined. Let us say, then, that this happened in the third century, since the year of that same century is thus far unascertained by us. Perhaps some light will accrue to this chronological point when, on the XVII day of November, the Acts of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus shall be illustrated: the investigation of which matter, as being now too premature, we defer to that place.
[16] But there remain two other points to be briefly touched upon. 1st. Whether our Saint was by profession a philosopher. Whether he was by profession a philosopher; 2nd. Whether he was the first bishop of the city of Comana. That he was a philosopher in the strict sense of the name the Roman Martyrology asserts, saying: Who, having attained from a most eloquent philosopher the eminent knowledge of Christian humility, etc. But it seems to me more probable that by the word φιλόσοφος that meaning is not indicated by St. Gregory of Nyssa; but that he meant nothing else than that St. Alexander was a lover of wisdom (for this is what the Greek etymology of that same word sounds, as is most well known) on account of the excellence of a virtue advanced so far that it was crowned even with a glorious martyrdom; which assuredly is the true and sacred philosophy, and more sublime than the painted preeminence of the other profane philosophers. But let us look into the source itself. The Greek text of St. Gregory has it thus: "But the man was also a certain philosopher, as his subsequent life made known, and
loftier than the rest, so that he came even to martyrdom, having finished his course through fire; but he undertook, or rather made it his study, to lie hidden," etc. That is: But the man was a certain philosopher; is it because he had previously learned, or even taught, the philosophical disciplines? I think not: for another reason follows, when it is said, as his subsequent life indicated: so much so that he came even to martyrdom, his course being finished through fire. But he wished of set purpose to lie hidden, etc. Our Saint therefore was a certain sacred philosopher, "and loftier than the rest" (as the Greek text of St. Gregory of Nyssa has it, but the translator Cifanus did not render this in Latin), that is, more sublime indeed than the rest — namely than the profane philosophers, whose wisdom, even if joined with virtue, does not have the excellence of martyrdom; or, if it be void of virtue, is nothing but sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Thus indeed I seem to myself able, not without reason, to expound the text of St. Gregory: so that it follows that it can by no means be hammered out of it that St. Alexander was a philosopher in the true and strict sense of the name.
[17] whether, next, he was the first bishop of the city of Comana. The other point of inquiry, which was proposed above, lay in this: whether our holy Martyr had been the first bishop of the city of Comana. That we should believe him to have been such, the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa persuade us, which we brought forward above from number 7. Nor does it stand in the way of our opinion that Eusebius, in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 16, page 132 of the edition and translation of Valesius, names Zoticus bishop of Comana: for besides that in the Greek text of Eusebius there is read "from the village of Comana," that is, from the country-seat, fort, town, hamlet, or district of Comana; although that prelate lived from the very beginning of the heresy of the Montanists, as may be seen in the same place; nevertheless, because that bishop could have presided either over Comana in Cappadocia, or elsewhere in a city of the same name from among those which were reviewed by us at number 1, it is not concluded from Eusebius that our Alexander was not the first prelate of the city of Comana in Pontus which we designated in the same place. Furthermore, concerning that holy Zoticus, bishop and martyr, treatment was given in our Work, volume V of July, on the XXI day, page 163, where with the modern Roman Martyrology he is announced at Comana in Armenia: whom nevertheless the modern French biographer, at the same day, column 337, judges is to be attributed to the village of Comana, which he says is believed to have been in Pamphylia; of which place we made mention at number 1 of this Sylloge.
[18] The credit of his deeds. For the rest, the historical narrative concerning St. Alexander the Charcoal-burner which we gave above deserves the highest credit, both from the condition of the person of the author who narrates it, and from the age in which he lived, and finally from the place where he wrote. For in the first place it is Gregory of Nyssa who narrates it, distinguished for holiness of life and for excellence of erudition. His eulogies you will find in the Prolegomena before the edition alleged above, from which we have transcribed that narrative hither; likewise in our Work, which I cited at number 4. Brief is that of James Gretser before the said edition, in his dedicatory letter to the Most Eminent Perron: By a singular providence of God, Gregory of Nyssa, a man most erudite, most eloquent, most acute, and at the same time most upright in life and manners, arose at the time when various heresies, and by name the Eunomian, were raging against the Catholic Church. Now he flourished in the fourth century, which was next to our Saint, whose deeds he narrates; and accordingly, since he wrote in that century which I have said, the wonderful deeds of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and those of St. Alexander which he wove in with these, were still living and breathing, so to speak. The place too gains authority for our writer: for the Nyssene was a bishop in Cappadocia; whither, accordingly, genuine notices of the things which he received could have spread; or he himself, having set out from Nyssa to Cæsarea, Sebaste, and Neocæsarea, may have learned them from the inhabitants or neighbors of Comana.