ON ST. HERACLAS,
PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.
IN THE YEAR 246.
A Collection concerning his deeds and cult.
Heraclas, Patriarch of Alexandria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
In the Historico-chronological Treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria, prefixed to Volume V of June, having set forth various formations of this name among the Greeks, Copts, and Abyssinians, from page 23 we weighed some things pertaining to St. Heraclas, Besides what was said in the treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria especially, as there was place there, concerning the duration of his episcopate, controverted among the chronologists, which, lest we be compelled to repeat what was said, we here wish to be held as inserted; as also those things which his successor Dionysius narrated of him, which you have there in number 136. The rest, to be received from book 6 of the Eusebian history, we undertake here to arrange in few words, namely fragments, adorning rather the man's learning than his deeds in the patriarchate: for that nothing of these was handed down to memory, we have already sufficiently warned in the aforesaid Treatise. Nor are the fictions of Eutychius of Alexandria to be resumed or again here refuted, in his Arabic Annals, translated into Latin by Pococke, page 332, concerning the origin of the name Papa, whence Echellensis drew his own: for of these we treated abundantly in the Parergon subjoined to St. Heraclas, from page 25. But what the same Eutychius dreamed, that the Patriarchs of Alexandria were ordained otherwise than other Bishops, was discussed in Parergon I, from page 9. Moreover, of the cult of St. Heraclas among the Copts, from their Hagiologies, all things likewise have been said which could be said: so that here nothing else remains, except that we collect some opinions of Eusebius, and the brief elogia of our Martyrologies.
[2] Among the disciples of the most celebrated Origen, it is agreed that a noble and renowned pair of brothers held the first place, some elogia survive, both germane, Plutarch and Heraclas: the former a distinguished Martyr, of whom it was treated on June 28, the latter afterward raised to the throne of the Alexandrian see, whom our Halloix thus briefly praises in his Origen, page 12, in whose words I judge nothing here to be reprehended, although I know that his book is prohibited until it be corrected. Thus he has: The germane brother of Plutarch was Heraclas, a man of remarkable learning, and indeed a fellow-student of Origen in the study of philosophy not so long before, and engaged in that study five years before him, but yet a little after, the second auditor of the same Origen in his Catechesis, and an imitator of his life, then also his helper in teaching, and lastly he became bishop of Alexandria. But let us hear Eusebius himself, who, having set forth the immense butchery of the Christians at Alexandria, Severus raging, in which the parent of Origen, Leonides, made an illustrious martyrdom, thus begins chapter 3 of book six: But meanwhile, when no one remained at Alexandria who might give effort to the handing down of the rudiments of our faith, all being driven out and put to flight for fear of the persecution, certain of the gentiles approached him (Origen), then still free and devoted to the school, as he somewhere writes of himself, to hear the word of God from him. Among whom he testifies that the first was Plutarch: who, after a life honorably passed, was also crowned with holy martyrdom. The second, Heraclas, the brother of the same Plutarch: who, when he too had given very many proofs of a philosophic life and of a certain more distinguished discipline with him, after the death of Demetrius was held worthy of the episcopate of the city of Alexandria.
[3] To this pertain the words of St. Jerome, On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 54, where, in his encomium of Origen, he inserts from Eusebius, Jerome, that he made Heraclas the presbyter, who persevered under the habit of a philosopher, his helper in the κατήχησις, who indeed also after Demetrius held the Alexandrian church. Somewhat more on this matter has Halloix, page 23: Wherefore, necessity urging,
he divided this whole multitude into two parts; and these indeed, who were to be imbued with the first elements of the faith, he assigned to Heraclas, the chief of his disciples, to be instructed, a man both exceedingly studious of the sacred letters, and also excellently furnished with the disciplines of philosophy and of the other sciences. How aptly these were taken from Eusebius is clear from his chapter 15, which we subjoin entire: But when he (Origen) perceived that he was by no means sufficient for the quieter contemplation of divine things, and for the scrutiny and interpretation of sacred Scripture, and at the same time for the instruction of those who came to him, through whom it was not permitted him even to breathe, since some upon others frequented his school from the first rising of the light until evening; the whole multitude of hearers being divided, choosing Heraclas from among his intimates, a man studious of divine things, and otherwise most learned, and not unversed in philosophy, he joined him to himself as companion and assistant in the office of teaching. And to him indeed he committed the instruction of those who were still being imbued with the first rudiments; but for himself he reserved the more perfect to be taught.
[4] Origen and others, The excellent erudition of the holy Patriarch, and his remarkable skill in philosophy, both profane and especially Christian, which they will have him to have drawn from Ammonius, Origen thus praises in the same Eusebius, chapter 19, so that by his example and that of Pantaenus (of whom we treated on July 7) he defends himself against the calumnies of the malevolent, that he expended too much study on the Greek disciplines. His words are on page 221 of the Valesian edition, which we follow: And this we did, both following the example of that Pantaenus, who before us profited many … and of Heraclas, who now sits among the presbyters of the Alexandrian church; whom I found with a master of philosophy, already giving him effort for the fifth year, before I had begun to listen to teaching of this kind. And therefore, whereas he had before used common dress, having laid it aside, he put on the philosophic habit, which even now retaining, he does not cease studiously to unroll the books of the Greeks. Of the philosophic habit here mentioned, Baronius treats at length in the Annals, on occasion of Tertullian's pallium, at the year 197, from number 15, which things need not here be explained by us, no more than other minutiae occurring here and there, because those have already long since found their place, or will further be found elsewhere: let it suffice to accomplish what we proposed, namely to set before the eyes those things which of the deeds of St. Heraclas were briefly consigned to writing by Eusebius.
[5] which our Halloix has for the most part collected. But that St. Heraclas flourished with equal praise of sanctity and of learning is altogether concluded from this, that at Alexandria, after the death of Demetrius, he undertook the ministry of the church, of which matter enough has already been disputed in the aforesaid Treatise. Let it be permitted to add the words of Halloix, page 41, where, the rivalries of Demetrius being related, he deservedly proclaims not only the learning of Heraclas, but also his most illustrious virtues. For when Origen, he says, had departed from Alexandria, there remained there other men illustrious in virtue and learning, and those indeed his disciples, and so fit to supply the place of the master, that his presence there was now not much to be desired. And these were Heraclas, of whom mention was before made, and Dionysius of Alexandria, of whom the former soon succeeded to the place of Origen, and Dionysius to that of Heraclas: both so illustrious, whether by the name of erudition or of sanctity, that the one succeeded the other afterward in the Alexandrian patriarchate; Dionysius Heraclas, Heraclas Demetrius. Nor indeed could Eusebius better prove the remarkable renown of the name of St. Heraclas, than when in chapter 31, treating of the most learned Africanus and enumerating his works, he thus narrates: The five books of Chronography of the same Africanus, most accurately composed, have come down even to us; in which he testifies that he set out to Alexandria, on account of the very great fame and esteem of all concerning Heraclas. And this is the single elogium which Usuard ascribed to him in his Martyrology, alone and first, since hitherto we have known no one more ancient who made memory of St. Heraclas in the sacred Fasti. This is his genuine text: At Alexandria, of holy Heracleas the prelate, on account of whose most celebrated repute the historiographer Africanus records that he hastened to him; which things almost the same are read in the present Roman.
[6] In our observations on Usuard on this day, What the Martyrologists have of him. we have already long since confessed, and further confess, that we have found no Martyrologist more ancient than he or contemporary with him who mentioned St. Heraclas; that we could not even then discern, what we have not hitherto discovered, why Usuard chose this particular day for marking the Saint, since nothing is less probable than that he died on this day, as you will find demonstrated at length in the said Treatise so often. But what we there left undecided in number 142, whether Heraclas himself was an adversary of Origen; nothing has hitherto occurred whence it may be clearly resolved. For the rest, so celebrated a Patriarch is also absent from all the Auctaria of Bede and Florus; added to two codices of Ado, the Morinensian and that of St. Lawrence of Liège, by the license of the copyists, who transferred him thither from Usuard, and indeed in Usuard's very words. To run through the Usuardine codices one by one here would help nothing at all; and the more recent ones, Maurolyco, Felicius, Galesinius, and others, add nothing worthy of note: but what Canisius added concerning the six years of the episcopate was refuted beforehand. Finally, whence the author of the manuscript Florarium dug up, or rather divined, that Africanus hastened to St. Heraclas in the year 232, I forbear to inquire. And these alone are the things which, besides what was said elsewhere, we have found faithfully handed down concerning St. Heraclas: it may be permitted to marvel, lastly, that in no Menaea, Menologia, or other tables of the Greeks, otherwise fertile enough in unknown Saints, is the memory of this Saint consigned.