Church Father
"The greatest scholar of the early Church — whose vast learning produced both the richest and most controversial theological corpus of the patristic age"
Origen was born c. AD 185 in Alexandria to Christian parents. His father was martyred in AD 202 and Origen took over the Catechetical School at seventeen, running it for thirty years. His output was extraordinary: commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible, homilies, systematic theology (On First Principles), apologetics (Against Celsus), and the Hexapla — a six-column critical edition of the Old Testament. Some speculative opinions — about the pre-existence of souls and final restoration of all things — were later condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople (553).
"The Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants."
"You who are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries know, when you receive the body of the Lord, how you protect it with all caution and veneration lest any small part fall from it."
"A last and most difficult method of remission of sins is penance, when the sinner is not ashamed to confess his sin to the priest of the Lord and to seek medicine for his wound."
Ordination chain from Christ to this Father — and onward to students. Solid links cite named primary sources. Unknown means no ordainer is historically attested. Nodes with a profile are linked.
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