Leonides of Alexandria

d. 202 · Father of Origen · Martyr · Alexandria

The Ante-Nicene Church

Who Leonides of Alexandria was

Origen’s father, beheaded in the Severan persecution of 202 — a devout scholar who had his son learn a portion of scripture daily, and would kiss the sleeping boy’s breast “as a shrine of the divine Spirit.” When he was imprisoned, the seventeen-year-old Origen wrote urging him on: “Take heed not to change thy mind on our account”; his mother had to hide the boy’s clothes to keep him from surrendering himself. His property was confiscated, leaving the family destitute — the poverty out of which the century’s greatest scholar worked.

Also listed in martyrs.

Common questions

When did Leonides die?

Leonides of Alexandria is dated d. 202 in the archive, which places Leonides in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313).

Which early sources mention Leonides?

Leonides of Alexandria is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome of Stridon. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Leonides from?

The archive associates Leonides of Alexandria with Alexandria.

Who were Leonides’ contemporaries?

The archive links Leonides of Alexandria to 3 other figures, including Origen of Alexandria, Emperor Septimius Severus and Potamiaena of Alexandria. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Ecclesiastical History VI.1–2

c. AD 325

Leonides, who was called the father of Origen, was beheaded, and left him with his mother and six younger brothers… The boy wrote to his father a letter on martyrdom, exhorting him, saying, ‘Take heed not to change thy mind on our account.’

Eusebius of Caesarea · VI.1–2 · source text