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MANY things might be said in attempting to describe the life of the
man while in school; but this subject alone would require a separate
treatise. Nevertheless, for the present, abridging most things, we
shall state a few facts concerning him as briefly as possible,
gathering them from certain letters, and from the statement of persons
still living who were acquainted with him. What they report of Origen
seems to me worthy of mention, even, so to speak, from his
swathing-bands.
It was the tenth year of the reign of Severus, while Laetus was
governor of Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, and Demetrius had
lately received the episcopate of the parishes there, as successor of
Julian. As the flame of persecution had been kindled greatly, and
multitudes had gained the crown of martyrdom, such desire for martyrdom
seized the soul of Origen, although yet a boy, that he went close to
danger, springing forward and rushing to the conflict in his
eagerness. And truly the termination of his life had been very near
had not the divine and heavenly Providence, for the benefit of many,
prevented his desire through the agency of his mother. For, at
first, entreating him, she begged him to have compassion on her
motherly feelings toward him; but finding, that when he had learned
that his father had been seized and imprisoned, he was set the more
resolutely, and completely carried away with his zeal for martyrdom,
she hid all his clothing, and thus compelled him to remain at home.
But, as there was nothing else that he could do, and his zeal beyond
his age would not suffer him to be quiet, he sent to his father an
encouraging letter on martyrdom, in which he exhorted him, saying,
"Take heed not to change your mind on our account." This may be
recorded as the first evidence of Origen's youthful wisdom and of his
genuine love for piety. For even then he had stored up no small
resources in the words of the faith, having been trained in the Divine
Scriptures from childhood. And he had not studied them with
indifference, for his father, besides giving him the usual liberal
education, had made them a matter of no secondary importance. First
of all, before inducting him into the Greek sciences, he drilled him
in sacred studies, requiring him to learn and recite every day. Nor
was this irksome to the boy, but he was eager and diligent in these
studies. And he was not satisfied with learning what was simple and
obvious in the sacred words, but sought for something more, and even
at that age busied himself with deeper speculations. So that he
puzzled his father with inquiries for the true meaning of the inspired
Scriptures.
And his father rebuked him seemingly to his face, telling him not to
search beyond his age, or further than the manifest meaning. But by
himself he rejoiced greatly and thanked God, the author of all good,
that he had deemed him worthy to be the father of such a child. And
they say that often, standing by the boy when asleep, he uncovered his
breast as if the Divine Spirit were enshrined within it, and kisses
it reverently; considering himself blessed in his goodly offspring.
These and other things like them are related to Origen when a boy.
But when his father ended his life in martyrdom, he was left with his
mother and six younger brothers when he was not quite seventeen years
old. And the poverty of his father being confiscated to the royal
treasury, he and his family were in want of the necessaries of life.
But he was deemed worthy of Divine care. And he found welcome and
rest with a woman of great wealth, and distinguished in her manner of
life and in other respects. She was treating with great honor a famous
heretic then in Alexandria; who, however, was born in Antioch. He
was with her as an adopted son, and she treated him with the greatest
kindness. But although Origen was under the necessity of associating
with him, he nevertheless gave from this time on strong evidences of
his orthodoxy in the faith. For when on account of the apparent skill
in argument of Paul, for this was the man's name, a great multitude
came to him, not only of heretics but also of our people, Origen
could never be induced to join with him in prayer; for he held,
although a boy, the rule of the Church, and abominated, as he
somewhere expresses it, heretical teachings. Having been instructed
in the sciences of the Greeks by his father, he devoted him after his
death more assiduously and exclusively to the study of literature, so
that he obtained considerable preparation in philology ad was able not
long after the death of his father, by devoting himself to that
subject, to earn a compensation amply sufficient for his needs at his
age.
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