§ 101. Сочинения его.

St. Alexander, in the matter with the wicked Arius, wrote about 70 letters to different bishops, explaining the wickedness of Arius 46. These messages were later collected by bishops into one book, as a memory of the zeal and faith of St. Alexandra 47. And, however, only two messages have reached us intact, a short speech to the elders and a few more words from two works; in addition, one of his words on the suffering of the Savior was recently found in the Syriac and Arabic translations 48. The letter, preserved with an inscription to Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople, was written after the second Council against Arius 49. According to Alexander’s intention, it should have been announced to other bishops and constituted an addition to that (τόμος) or definition of the Council, signed by all bishops, but lost to us. St. Alexander explained in this letter the grounds on which the condemnation was pronounced against Arius. At the beginning, he briefly describes the riots caused by Arius in Alexandria (§ 1. 2) and the teachings of Arius (§ 2. 3), then he sets out the doctrine of the Divinity of the Son of God and his confession of faith, while pursuing the teachings of Arius with refutations. Since the Arians put forth two ungodly thoughts: a) the Son of God is not eternal and created, and therefore b) is not God, but only God’s chosen one: then the Doctor of the Church, in refutation of the first thought, excellently explains the words of the Evangelist about God (John 1:1-3) and some other places (§ 3-7). The second thought was already refuted by the first explanation, and Alexander only briefly points out to refute it some words of Scripture, noting at the same time the cunning of the Arians who tried in disputes to highlight the words of Scripture relating to the earthly, humiliated life of the Savior (§ 8-9). Then, touching on the moral qualities of Arius (§10–11), he sets out a confession of faith, where, among other things, he says about the Lord Jesus: “Not only in appearance, but in fact had a body from the Mother of God Mary (Θετόκος). Finally, having spoken of his determination to die for the confession of the Apostolic Faith (§ 13), he convinces and asks the bishops not to listen to or accept the enemies of the Son of God. The district letter to the bishops of the universal Church was written after the first Council against Arius. In it, St. Alexander writes: “I wanted to remain silent about this incident (about the fall of the Arians), so that the evil would be limited only to the inventors of the heresy, but the audacity of Eusebius of Nicomedia, who took under his protection those who had apostatized from the faith, forced me to notify everyone about the evil.” Having named those condemned by the Council, Arius briefly refutes the heresy. This letter was signed by the presbyters and deacons present at the Council, but not by the bishops, who, as is known, were at the second Council 50. In the Word on the Savior’s suffering he says: “When our Lord suffered on the tree: the tombs were torn apart, hell was opened, souls came out, the dead returned to life and many of them were visible in Jerusalem.... The heavenly bodies were afraid: the sun fled, the moon disappeared, the stars hid their light, the day ended; after the veil was torn apart, the frightened angel left the church; darkness covered the earth on which her Lord closed his eyes.” Socrates N. E. 1, 16. Sozomen 1, 1. It was found and published by May. In Min (in Patr. T. 48) it is placed, like the messages; the last with comments. See § 2. In § 9 he writes “I do not know what prompts the three bishops of Syria to agree with them and encourage them to spread their teachings. Your wisdom will undoubtedly pronounce judgment on these bishops.” St. Alexander, with his last words, makes it known that he expects confirmation from the Bishop of Constantinople of the condemnation that he pronounced at the 2nd Council of Alexandria. This is also evident from the letter of Arius, preserved by Theodoret (N.E. 1.5), against the bishops Eusebius of Caesarea, Theodotus of Laodicea and Paulinus of Syria. The meaning of the word τόμος was shown by Montfaucon (Praefat. ad 2 Tom. Collect. Patr. Graec. p. 20). Sl. deputy 14. Both epistles and a short speech in translation are printed in Christ. read 1826 22 hours. The original letter to Alexander was preserved by Theodoret (N.E. 1.4). The district epistle was placed by Socrates in his Church History (1, 6), but with errors and without the signatures of those who were at the Council. Montfaucon found a correct copy of this last message and short speech in an ancient Parisian manuscript and published it in the 1st volume of the works of St. Afanasia. From the letter to Eglon of Kinopolis, two passages were preserved by St. Maximus the Confessor (Op. Vol. 2, pp. 152–153). All these precious remains of the champion of Orthodoxy are printed in the 4th volume of the Galland Library. Harless believes that this same Alexander belongs to: in the Paris manuscript (Cod. 2655) the book περὶ φύσεος, which discusses judicial astrology (fatalism). Mayo has given two excerpts from his Conversations (Specil. rom. 3, 699). You might be interested in: