Demetrius, first 'Overseer' of the Alexandrian Church

There is something that has always puzzled me about Demetrius. He is identified as one of the Alexandrian Patriarchs, the first one which isn't just a name on a list. Demetrius has long been identified by scholars like Telfer as a reformer and innovator too. He reorganized the entire Egyptian Church, decentralizing authority from the man who sat in the throne of St. Mark. His reign is generally identified as being from 189–232 CE which is quite long given the violence going on around him. The same scholars who are quick to accept the ludicrous story of Peter I's (c. 311 CE) execution don't find it at all puzzling that Demetrius should have last a little under forty four years while persecutions were going on all around him.

Indeed Demetrius seems to have directed many of the assaults against the heads of the so-called Catechetical School.

Why do Clement and Origen flee from Alexandria while the supposed 'bishop' manages to hang on unfettered? Jerome reports that Origen banishment was decreed by 'Imperial Rome.' As such on some level Demetrius was facilitating official Roman policy.

Severus of Al'Ashmunein presents a fascinating portrait of the period, drawing from a number of sources no longer available to us. The image of Demetrius which comes from his sources is of an uneducated (he was never identified as the head of the Catechetic school) who appears as the first (and last) married Patriarch (this in a tradition which was avowedly ascetic; Clement's statements in favor of marriage can be written off as having been put forward while this married Archbishop ruled over Egypt). He was also never called Papa interestingly.

Something is very odd here. The sense one gets from the material is that Demetrius was sent on behalf of the Imperial government in order to keep an eye on the Alexandrian Church while it enacted a number of reforms (including the NT canon undoubtedly). A parallel situation actually unfolds in Samaritanism in the Commodian period where the geneaologies of priests become 'lost' and the establish order 'changed' from without.

What is so fascinating for me now is that I was quite literally up last night (woken up by growls from my dog). I started thinking about the LOCATION of the Catechetic School (finding possible allusions in Origen that it was located in a graveyard). I immediately thought of the martyrium of Mark in the Boucolia as the logical location and then I immediately realized that the heads of the 'college' were undoubtedly viewed by the local parish as the true heirs of St. Mark (and thus the Papa or Pope). The line of these 'underground Popes' would necessarily go through Clement, Origen, Heraclas, Dionysius, Theognostos, Pieirus - possibly Meletius - Achillas and ultimately Arius.

It is noteworthy that under this scenario THE REASON Clement, Origen and Heraclas (for the first part of his reign) are not called Papa, Bishop or any such title is because Demetrius' presence wouldn't allow them to assume that title openly. The same thing would be true at the time of Pieirus, Meletius, Achillas and Arius. Interestingly the two groups would be connected by Arius' frequent identification as an Origenist and the Arians appeal to Dionysius as 'one of them.' The idea here would be that Imperial government worked with the Catholics at the beginning and the end of the third century with the chaotic period in between as an age in which the man who sat on the throne of St. Mark in the martyrium in the Boucolia could OPENLY declare his identity. When the Roman government recollected itself after the rebellion of Zenobia it renewed the effort of the Antonine Emperors to control the Alexandrian Church - hence the persecutions.

I have always been suspicious of the figure of 'Maximus' (Great) who supposedly follows Dionysius called 'the Great. Nothing is said about him and his appears comes at the very moment Dionysius' decision to join Zenobia's revolt would be known. By cutting off Dionysius' reign we don't find out whether he supported Lucian etc. It is worth noting that Severus Al'Ashmunein knew of a chronology which extended Dionysius' reign longer than the official records outside of Egypt have now established it.

But let's get back to Demetrius. Commodus was very involved in the newly established Catholic Church of Irenaeus of Rome through his concubine Marcia Aurelia Ceionia Demetria(s?). This woman's cognomen seems to have been 'Demetrius' i.e. she came from a family named of this name. At the same time we have papyri which indicate that at the very time 'St. Demetrius' was established as bishop of Alexandria (i.e. 189) Commodus established a certain Q Tineius Demetrius - i.e. a man who would have undoubtedly been identified simply as 'Demetrius' in the age - as his prefect in Egypt. In other words the man who governed Egypt AND ITS CHURCH ON BEHALF OF CAESAR shared the name of the bishop who persecuted Clement and Origen, reorganized the Church structure AND shared the same family name as Commodus' CHRISTIAN concubine (she became a Christian as she grew up).

I also suspect that the 'little Marcia' (i.e. Marcellina) the Alexandrian who is mentioned in Hippolytus as coming to Rome at the time of Antoninus was one and the same with our Marcia.

At least it makes you think ...