_{By His Eminence Archbishop Makarios Tillyrides,
Metropolitan of Zimbabwe}

here can be no doubt that even at the time when it was first built - in 332/331 BC, by the famous architects Deinocrates of Rhodes and Cleomenes of Naucratis, on the inspiration of Alexander the Great himself - Alexandria was a city of unique importance in the then known world, a place of great prestige in intellectual, economic, cultural, commercial and military life. Because of its geographical position, the city of Alexandria also became a city which linked ancient Egyptian civilization with that of Greece and Rome and, then with that of the Jews, to emerge as, a renowned capital which was a place of meeting and cross-influence among the main spiritual and intellectual trends of the time. The presence of the various schools of philosophy, which developed and cultured the theories of Aristotle and Plato, helped to further elevate its prestige and splendor, making it a pole to which men flocked from all directions. 

ts famous 1ibraries and the other important centers of letters and the arts such as its -university, were forerunners which were to have positive effects when Christianity subsequently made its appearance. All these features, and the cultures of Europe, Asia and Africa, amalgamated to create a new spiritual and intellectual trend which made the city something of a cosmopolitan meeting-point for various different civilizations. 

hristianity made its way to Alexandria at a very early date, via the Jews of the Diaspora, who had long had a flourishing community in the area. It was only natural that the Jews should come under the influence of Greek culture, also vigorous and dynamic in the city at the same time. Something of this can be seen in the account in Acts (VII, 8-10) of the preaching of Stephen: "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and  Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. " There can be little doubt that the preaching of the new religion had a positive effect on many of the Jews, who later joined the Church and espoused its beliefs. We should have no reservations about accepting the view that Christianity was introduced  into the great city of Alexandria and its vicinity by the Jews, especially if we bear another extract from Acts in mind: "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue;  whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much, which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing them by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ"(XVIII, 24-28). 

owever, it is St Mark who is regarded both by tradition and in the light of various written, sources as the pioneer and herald of the Church in Egypt and indeed, throughout the continent of Africa. It is said that Mark came of a Jewish family from, Cyrenaica, being the son of Aristobulus, brother-of the Apostle Barnabas. When the, family of Aristobulus fell upon hard times, it was forced to leave Cyrene and emigrate to the land of Israel. Mark's mission to Egypt was a peaceful one: he arrived there - in about. 43 AD not as a conqueror, but bearing the Gospel of Christ. His move to Egypt can be seen as the founding and inauguration of-the Patriarchate of Alexandria: one of the reasons why the institution occupies such a prominent position in the family of the Orthodox Churches. 

ith faith and with the salvation of souls always as his criterion, Mark entered Alexandria by the Moon Gate next to the customs house, precisely at the spot where the first church - the first place of worship of the Holy Trinity - was later built. Mark's purpose on his first visit, which was made difficult by the various foreign trends then predominant among the population - of Alexandria, was to establish and inaugurate the new religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Here, on his first visit, he met the shoemaker Animus, who enthusiastically received Mark's message and followed him, later becoming his successor. 'That is' why St. Mark is seen today as the Apostle not only of Egypt, but of all Africa.

nninus, Mark's continuator and second Bishop of Alexandria, "a man pleasing to God and admired by all" (62-81), was able to keep up the work begun by Mark and to produce important spiritual achievements in establishing the Christian Word. On his second visit to Alexandria, Mark met a martyr's death for his faith in Christ; Nicephorus of Constantinople refers to him in his Chronicle, as "the first martyr of our Lord, Jesus Christ in Alexandria".  Various accounts tell us that St Mark  preached the Gospel in the year 39 or 43. 

nce the foundations of the faith had been laid correctly by Mark, there was no doubt that the Gospel would find a positive response among the Jews, and also among the Greeks. The local population of Egypt, on the other hand, does not seem to have been very enthusiastic about the new message that had just arrived in the land of the Pharaohs, or to have played a particularly significant role in the administration and organization of the first Christian community in Egypt.

here is no evidence as to whether Egyptians occupied an important position in the first Christian community of Alexandria, given that Egyptian names do not begin to appear in the lists of bishops until the late second century. The fact of the matter is, however, that even in its very first years the Church of Alexandria expanded its activities to cover not only Egypt, Libya and the cities of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis but also the sub-Saharan countries of Africa. (It should be noted at this point that the most senior Metropolitan Bishop of the Church of Alexandria was the Bishop of Libya, who was styled 'Most Honorable Exarch of All Africa'.) Nor should we omit to mention that even in the very early days Christianity spread to Yemen, Ethiopia and Nubia thanks to the missionary activities of the Church of Alexandria. Of particular importance was the work done by St. Pantaenus in Ethiopia, of whom Eusebius tells us: "they say that with the most fervent disposition he showed readiness as to the divine word, and proved himself a herald of the Gospel according to Christ to the nations to the east, being sent as far as the land of India, for there were moreover at that time many preachers of the word, ready to add their divine zeal in imitating the Apostles for the increase and building up of the divine word... ".

 ittle evidence has survived of spiritual and intellectual life in Alexandria during the first half of the second century AD. However, we know more about the situation towards the end of that century, when the greater part of the Greeks of Alexandria had already embraced Christianity and the new religion had gained supporters not only in the city itself, but also\outside it, in the surrounding countryside. This would seem to indicate that the Greeks of the time were not fanatical adherents either of the ancient Greek or of the ancient Egyptian culture, thus making them more receptive to the new religion. 

n this way, Alexandria, which was already, a place where ideas came and went and a renowned center for the arts and letters, soon acquired a further privilege: that of becoming the home of Christianity. From this point on, a spirit of love and peace among the civilizations was cultivated, and a new civilization was grafted on to the two older cultures, enhancing them to a degree that could hardly have been imagined. In parallel, however, it was not long before the first heretical trends appeared in the Church of Alexandria. These included Gnosticism, whose adherents attempted to reconcile the ancient Greek theories with the spirit and deeds, of the Christian religion. Needless to say, this undertaking was a perversion of Christian truth. The chief proponent of these ideas was Basilides, whose efforts Isidore, "his authentic son and disciple", studied and wished to continue. Both these men strove to disseminate "pseudonymous gnosis" in treatises of their own. The most genuine representative of the new theory however, was Valentius, a laborer and preacher born in Alexandria who later moved to Rome and was thus responsible for the division of Gnosticism into two schools, those of the East and the West. The movement soon picked up strength and caused serious problems, especially for the life of the Church of Christ in Alexandria, where even women, were enlisted in the task of spreading its teachings. 

he Church now had to devise ways of dealing with the heretical efforts of the Gnostics, who were proving to be a serious internal obstacle for the development and consolidation of Christianity. The center of this campaign of resistance took shape with the founding of the Catechetical School, established and superbly directed by Pantaenus. Pantaenus was of Sicilian origin, and in earlier times  had been an adherent of the Stoic school of philosophy. He then embraced Christianity, studying the new religion, being catechetised, and ultimately achieving certainty as to its correctness. He became an enthusiastic supporter of Christianity and a zealous missionary who worked for its dissemination.
 
e continued to work with success down to about 200 AD. Eusebius, in, his ecclesiastical history, gives a good picture of the achievements of 
Pantaenus: "A leader at that time of the studies of the faithful there was a man most renowned for his culture; his name was Pantaenus.. Out of ancient practice, a school for the words of God was set up among them, which has survived down to our time and which we have heard from tradition was made up of those who were strong, in reasoning and in their concern for the divine; and it is a well-known fact that eloquence flourished among them then, and that this sprang from the philosophical training of the Stoics. Pantaenus, in addition to his many achievements, ending his, days in Alexandria, was in charge of the school, through his living voice and his writings interpreting the treasures of the divine teachings". 

nder the guidance of Pantaenus and his successors, the School proved to be a godsend in dealing with all the heretical movements which sprang up during the early days of the Church of-Alexandria. For a while Pantaenus' assistants included Clement, who became famous for his profound learning and the systematic way in which he directed the School. When Clement was forced to resign during the persecution of Septimius (203), he was succeeded as director by a man whose youth, belied his tremendous learning: Origen. Origen gave the work of the School fresh impetus and inaugurated a period in which it enjoyed great prestige, thanks to his success in putting it on more systematic and lasting foundations. The School became known outside the frontiers of Egypt itself, and was attended not only by Christians but also by heretics and even pagans. The nature of the system applied in the School led to the creation of a theological and philosophical current involving the spirit of a strongly allegorical interpretation of Scripture. In their writings, the teachers of the School went still further, and a mystical tendency came to prevail. Origen was succeeded by Heracles (231-247), later Bishop of Alexandria, and among the names of other distinguished teachers of the Catechetical School of Alexandria were those of Dionysius, Theognostus, Pierius, Peter, Didymus the Blind and Rhodon. 

uring the first two centuries of the Christian era, Alexandria was spared many of the fearful persecutions experienced by other churches in the Roman Empire. Septimius Severus visited Alexandria in 202 and issued a special edict forbidding conversion to Judaism and, subsequently, to Christianity as a result precisely, 
of the active and effectrive work being carried out by the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Many leading, figures in the society of Alexandria suffered terribly, including Origen's father Leonidas, who was martyred for his Christian beliefs. Origen himself succoured the persecuted Christians, paying regular visits to the victims of the cruel policy of the Roman emperors. Many Christians were, put to death and the city of Alexandria experienced a time of horror and fear. Dionysius of Alexandria tells us that "no street, or avenue, or alley was passable for us, either by night or by day, with everyone constantly and everywhere clamouring" The persecution under Decius (249-251) was still more terrible, extending beyond Alexandria itself to the whole of Egypt. It was at this time that Origen, the great teacher and sage, met a martyr's death in prison at Tyre. 

ersecution continued during the reign of Valerian (253-260). At this period, the Great City of Alexandria lost much of its glory and forfeited the admiration due to centres of the arts and letters. Fear and depopulation reigned everywhere, and the numerous Christian population, threatened with persecution and banishment, drifted away from Alexandria and, indeed, from the whole of Egypt. Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History gives us a very vivid picture of what took  place during these persecutions, and 


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