June 2012

Today is the feast of St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon (d. 202 AD),arguably the first systematic theologian in the Church.  In his youth, he learned from St. Polycarp who was a student of the Apostle John.  Irenaeus’ teaching is still very important in the Church more than 1800 years later; he is explicitly cited 24 […]

Today’s saint, Cyril of Alexandria, is both a Father and a Doctor of the Church. The titles are a grace, of course, but he worked hard to correspond to them. He was the nephew of his predecessor as Patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt. He likely spent his youth in a monastery before his uncle drafted

With the big discovery of some of his lost homilies on the Psalms in the news, I decided to focus on Origen in this week’s episode of The Sacred Page Podcast. Below is a .pdf containing an outline and notes of this presentation, with references to primary sources cited. The-Sacred-Page-Podcast on Origen

“Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8). Saint Paul wrote that line about the Christian Passover, the feast of the victory of the Lamb of God. But he would certainly forgive me for applying it to the feast day he shares with Saint Peter

I’ve written a bit on Origen in the past (e.g., here). He’s one of my favorite early Christian writers. He’s also one of Pope Benedict’s favorites. In his catechetical series on the fathers, Benedict XVI spent two lectures on Origen (many only got one). Well, now we have more of Origen than ever before. In