Patrons, Students, Intellectuals, and Martyrs: Women in Origen’s Life and Eusebius’ Biography

3.1 Origen’s Mother: Women and Martyrdom

I hope the readers will forgive me the cliché, but an investigation on women in a man’s life cannot but start with the mention of his mother. In the case of Origen, if we are to trust Eusebius’ account, his mother was a volitive and devout Christian woman who, notably, remained unnamed. Her role in Origen’s life, however, was momentous, as she prevented him from becoming a martyr at the age of 17.

Before proceeding with observations, it is important to underline that Eusebius’ account of Origen’s childhood adheres closely to traditional hagiographical tropes on saints’ infancy. Origen is portrayed as the ideal child: precociously fluent in language and learned in Scripture from an early age. In other words, Eusebius’ narrative aligns with the concept of the puer maior sua aetate that characterizes the childhoods of many saints.^[23] However, amidst the flawless record of Origen’s youth, one blemish stands out. When his father was arrested and martyred during the persecutions in Alexandria, Origen refrained from following in his footsteps and avoided martyrdom. This life-changing event is one of the few biographical details of Origen’s life confirmed by his own account, as he references it briefly in his Homilies on Ezekiel.^[24] Eusebius’ account describes the event as follows:

In fact, he was not far at all from leaving this life, but for the fact that divine and heavenly providence, taking thought for the aid of many, placed an impediment in his way in the form of his mother. First, she begged him with words, telling him to spare her motherly feelings toward him, but when she saw him becoming more vehement after he learned that his father had been arrested and was being held in prison, and that he had become wholly fixed on martyrdom, she hid all his clothing, forcing him to remain at home.^[25]

The martyrdom of Origen’s father, however, provides limited insight into his mother’s response to the ordeal. In Origen’s works, there are instances where he reflects on the expected roles of mothers in the face of their loved ones’ martyrdom. In his Exhortation to Martyrdom, Origen proposes a long exegesis of the mother of the seven martyrs from 2 Macc 7. Here, idealized motherhood is vividly depicted:

For the dews of true religion and the wind of holiness did not permit that fire of a mother’s love, which flames up in most women under such heavy evils, to be kindled in her bowels.^[26]

Unlike this “most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance” woman (2 Macc 7:20), Origen’s own mother succumbed to her maternal love and deceived him into remaining alive. As Miriam DeCock aptly observes in her study of women’s speech in Origen’s writings, the Maccabean mother’s voice is somewhat muted in Origen’s treatment, especially considering the insistence of the biblical texts on the mother’s speech, while Origen preferred to focus on the sons’ words.^[27] Nevertheless, he explicitly praises her bravery in enduring her children’s sufferings; something that his own mother apparently could not according to Eusebius.

Even in Eusebius’ account, the portrayal of Origen’s mother deviates significantly from the traditional tropes of motherhood and martyrdom common to early and late antique Christian narratives.^[28] In Origen’s time, and even more so in Eusebius’, the ideal Christian mother was defined as one whose love for God transcended all her earthly ties, including those with her children. Early and late antique Christian hagiographies abound with examples of mothers who endured, and even rejoiced in, their children’s martyrdom.^[29] In Eusebius’ History of the Church, two archetypal martyred mothers serve as counterpoints to Origen’s mother. In book 5, he recounted the martyrdom of Blandina, a woman who, though not biologically a mother, assumed a maternal role by supporting young Ponticus during his tortures.^[30] In book 8, Eusebius told the story of an unnamed Roman matron^[31] – later identified by John Chrysostom as Domina^[32] – who chose to sacrifice herself and her two daughters rather than allow their chastity to be violated by Roman soldiers. These examples, inspired by the Maccabean mother, shaped subsequent martyr narratives.^[33]

In addition to these examples, Eusebius mentions that several women among Origen’s pupils faced martyrdom, explicitly naming two: Herais and Potamiaena. Both accounts are highly intriguing. The case of Herais is particularly notable, as Eusebius describes her martyrdom using the unique expression “baptism by fire.”^[34] Although Eusebius claims to quote Origen verbatim, this phrase does not appear in any of the surviving works attributed to Origen. The term likely alludes to a concept similar to the “baptism of blood,” which Origen discusses also in his Commentary on John and Homilies on Judges.^[35] This suggests that catechumens and non-baptized individuals – including women, as in Herais’ case – who died refusing to renounce the name of Christ or endured torture in his name, received the sacrament of baptism by means of their faith. Eusebius provides a detailed description of Potamiaena’s martyrdom in Chapter 5, pairing her story with the martyrdom of a man named Basilides, whom she converted to Christianity while imprisoned.^[36] Like Herais, Potamiaena and her mother were executed by fire. Similarly to Domina and her daughters, they also died to protect their chastity from their captors. Across all these narratives, the women are consistently portrayed as courageously enduring their suffering, strenuously protecting their purity, and joyfully accepting their fate. In contrast to these martyred women, Origen’s mother is depicted by Eusebius as an anti-heroic figure, embodying what early Christian male writers saw as the inherent weaknesses of the female sex. Of course, as such, she also fits a literary trope.

As a final note on this matter, I would like to propose another possible source for Eusebius’ portrayal of Origen’s mother; a source that shifts radically the possible “negative” influence of the mother on her son’s virtue. While her character does not align with typical martyrial motherhood tropes, she resembles other Greco-Roman literary tropes. The depiction of Origen’s mother as a figure who prevents her son from making a life-altering mistake is a motif found in many ancient biographies of illustrious intellectual men. A particularly striking parallel is Agricola’s mother in Tacitus’ The Life of Cnæus Julius Agricola,^[37] where she dissuades the young Agricola from pursuing his passion for Greek philosophy, thus steering him away from a path deemed unsuitable for a Roman civic hero. However, this suggestion requires further investigation, as there is no traceable evidence, to my knowledge, that Eusebius was familiar with Tacitus.^[38] Nonetheless, it is plausible that similar tropes on virtuous Roman matrons circulated beyond Tacitus’ work and were part of a broader literary tradition.^[39]

Given this evidence, three observations on Origen’s mother emerge, and these are not mutually exclusive. First, Eusebius’ narrative preserves Origen’s virtue and faith, as, without his mother’s intervention, he would have died a martyr alongside his father. Second, Eusebius portrays Origen’s mother on the examples of other illustrious mothers of philosophers and intellectuals. Third, should we grant some veracity to the information, the mother’s deeply human desire to protect her son’s life may indicate a reluctance among some early Christian women to fully embrace the martyrial maternal archetype proposed by early Christian male authors.^[40]

3.2 Origen’s Unnamed Patroness

After his father’s martyrdom, Origen was the man of the house and needed to provide financially for his mother and siblings. On this occasion, Origen appeared to have no reservations about befriending a woman and accepting her financial support. In Eusebius’ account, the woman who helped him after his father’s martyrdom remains unnamed, but she is introduced as a figure of high regard: “he (Origen) was deemed worthy of God’s divine economy and obtained the right hand of friendship and relief from a certain wealthy woman who was well respected for her way of life and in other respects.”^[41] The Greek expression used by Eusebius to describe the connection between Origen and the wealthy woman – τυγχάνει δεξιώσεως ὁμοῦ – is otherwise unknown, offering little insight into the exact nature of their relationship. It seems to suggest a form of literary and financial patronage common in Antiquity, where patrons, often men, supported writers, much like it happens with Origen’s later patron Ambrose. However, women also served as patrons.^[42] This role was already established in Roman society, with some wealthy women serving as patrons of the arts, and it was adopted also by Christian women, especially those, like widows, who had control over their wealth.^[43] Origen’s unnamed benefactor likely fell into this category. It seems that she took an interest in supporting young Christian teachers as, according to Eusebius, she also sponsored a young man named Paul, treating him as an adopted son. Eusebius’ account continues by describing how Origen never mingled with Paul, as he was allegedly part of the Valentinian church. The young Origen refused to engage with his companion’s heretical teachings and to pray with him. This portrayal of Origen resisting heresy in his youth aligns with hagiographical tropes, leaving us questioning the reliability of Eusebius’ information. Regardless, Eusebius seems to have used this “orthodox vs heretic” narrative to posthumously defend Origen from his detractors. As for Origen’s patroness, it is possible that Eusebius was suggesting that the woman herself, so fond of Paul to consider him a son, belonged to the Valentinian church, especially considering that various forms of Christianity coexisted at the time of Origen’s youth in Alexandria. Yet, the woman’s connection to a young Valentinian teacher might also reflect the tendency of writers like Eusebius to link Gnostic figures with women as a form of denigration.^[44]

This information leaves us little room to speculate on the position of this wealthy woman in Origen’s life. However, studies on ancient patronage, such as Kim Haines-Eitzen’s research,^[45] show that women were indeed involved in literary production in various capacities. It is plausible that this unnamed woman was a patroness of the arts, a Christian woman interested in education and dedicated to financially supporting young teachers. Origen does not mention her in his writings; it could be because her support came early in his life or because he did not want to be associated with this woman and the Valentinian Paul. Yet, it is also possible that the story is a fabrication of Eusebius to reinforce his portrayal of Origen as an “heroic heresy-fighter.”

3.3 Origen and Learned Women: Juliana, Students, and Women Calligraphists

It is also worth considering the role played in Origen’s literary ventures by a woman named Juliana. She helped Origen to acquire Symmachus’ biblical manuscript,^[46] and Eusebius claims that she had received the manuscript from Symmachus himself:

“Origen indicates that he had gleaned these details along with another of Symmachus’ interpretations of the writings from a certain Juliana, who, he says, had received the books from Symmachus himself.”^[47]

This opens a variety of possibilities about Juliana’s identity and her connections to Symmachus. In antiquity, books and libraries were usually either inherited by family and friends or by students in the case of teachers.^[48] Given her acquaintance with prominent intellectuals of her time – e.g. Symmachus and Origen – it seems plausible that Juliana could have been herself interested in intellectual endeavours. If so, this would place her among Origen’s and/or Symmachus’ students. Few more details about Juliana’s characters are provided by Palladius in his Lausiac History:

Then there was a maiden, Juliana, in Caesarea of Cappadocia, said to be a most learned and trustworthy woman. She took in Origen the writer when he fled from the insurrection of pagans, and she kept him at her own expenses for two years and looked after him. This is what I found written in a very old book of verses, and it was written there in Origen’s own hand: “I found this book among the things of Juliana the virgin in Caesarea, when I was hidden by her. She used to say that she had received it from Symmachus himself, the translator of the Jews”.^[49]

According to this later account of the fifth century, Juliana was from Caesarea in Cappadocia, she was learned and had the financial means to support Origen for two years. No husband is mentioned, but she had the possibility to host travellers in her house, so it is fair to suppose that she was a widow and/or an ordained virgin. By supporting Origen for two years, she would have been essentially acting as a patroness. Although intriguing, Palladius’ information about Origen’s travels does not align with what we know about Origen’s life. It is established with a good degree of certainty that Origen wrote the Hexapla during the first years of his life in Alexandria, roughly in the first decade of the third century.^[50] This is also the time when he needed Juliana to acquire Symmachus’ books for him. The “pagan uprising” recalled by Palladius does not seem to refer to any specific event happening in Alexandria at the time, and there is no news of Origen’s travel to/from Cappadocia in the first years of the third century.^[51] For these reasons, I am inclined to dismiss this account of Juliana as Origen’s patroness as Palladius’ fictitious rendition of Eusebius’ information. It is indeed possible that Palladius was merging the unnamed patroness of book 6, 2, 13 with the Juliana character in book 6, 17, 1.

Even if we do not have the means to confirm Palladius’ information about Juliana, Eusebius’ news seems reliable. Indeed, the idea that a woman helped Origen tracing a biblical translation does not add much to Eusebius’ agenda. It is still likely that Juliana was an educated woman who had intellectual exchange with Origen. This suggests that Origen had a certain openness to include women in his intellectual circle. As a teacher, Origen taught advanced subjects such as rhetoric, philosophy and biblical exegesis. If we are to believe Eusebius’ account, he was the teacher of many women, such as the abovementioned martyrs Potimiaena and the Herais.^[52] Thus, Origen seems to believe that women should receive higher education as well as men.

Teaching women in his schools is also the reason that Eusebius’ adduces for Origen’s emasculation. This is indeed a longstanding debate among scholars, who have long evaluated both the information coming from Origen’s own condemnation of castration^[53] and later sources by Christian authors. Some scholars tend to believe that this was a fabricated rumour spread by Origen’s detractors. For instance, Ilaria Ramelli has recently discussed this issue in her article on Origen’s gender conception and reached this conclusion.^[54] Others have rather believed that Origen committed this act of self-mutilation. For instance, Peter Brown claimed that Origen was hoping to transcend the boundaries between sexes and becoming a “human being exiled from either gender.”^[55] I would be more inclined to share Christoph Markschies’ suspension of judgement and acknowledge that the sources simply do not give enough information.^[56] Regardless of whether teaching women lead Origen to such an extreme act of continence, it is undeniable that he seems to believe in the importance of educating female pupils in his schools and having significant intellectual exchanges with women. To a certain extent, Origen’s attitude towards learned women is confirmed by his portrayal of a young Mary in his Homilies on Luke. In his description of the angel Gabriel visiting her, Origen underlines that Mary “knew the Law; she was holy and had learned the writings of the prophets by meditating on them daily.”^[57] Although not definitive, this information suggests that Origen had a positive and supportive attitude towards women interested in pursuing knowledge and education.

A different case must be made for women to become teachers themselves, especially in public contexts and assemblies. Although Origen seems to accept women being ordained as deaconesses and widows in the church,^[58] he seems inclined to follow the dictate of the Pauline letters and the Graeco-Roman custom, according to which women should not be allowed to speak in public.^[59]

Eusebius’ account confirms also that women in Origenian circles were involved in literary production in many capacities, such as working as calligraphists. About Origen’s writing habits, Eusebius writes the following:

More than seven shorthand writers were with him when he dictated, relieving each other on a schedule, and just as many scribes, along with maidens trained in calligraphy. Ambrose generously supplied what was required for all of them.^[60]

In a very interesting study on female scribes in Roman antiquity and early Christianity,^[61] Kim Haines-Eitzen notes that Eusebius’ information about female calligraphers is extremely important and has often gone unacknowledged in both ancient and modern times. For instance, Jerome, who read Eusebius, reported in his De viris illustribus that Origen had “seven secretaries, paying their expenses, and an equal number of copyists,” with no mention of women calligraphists.^[62] Despite being a rare example, Origen’s case was not an isolated case of women being involved in the literary production process. Kim Haines-Eitzen makes an exhaustive list of cases where both slaves and freewomen were employed as scribes and calligraphists in the first centuries CE. However, she also highlights the originality of Eusebius’ information, as this is one of the only two cases in which women calligraphists worked for a man, whilst the widespread praxis was that women scribes worked for other women. What should we then conclude? It seems unlikely that Eusebius included this information with the purpose of highlighting Origen’s inclusion of women in his intellectual circles, nor does this information serve any other specific purpose within Eusebius’ agenda. He does not assign particular relevance to it but merely mentions it in passing. It seems far more likely that subsequent authors who reworked Eusebius’ texts, such as Jerome, felt uneasy about this information and decided to omit it.

3.4 A Manful Woman: Tatiana

Origen’s treatise On Prayer is the only work he explicitly dedicated to a woman, otherwise unknown, named Tatiana, alongside his friend and patron Ambrose. She is mentioned at the beginning and closing of the treatise, and Origen writes the following about her:

But I think, right pious and industrious Ambrosius, and right discreet and manful Tatiana, from whom I avow that womanly weakness has disappeared as truly as it had from Sarah of old, you are wondering to what purpose all this has been said in preface about things impossible for man becoming possible by the grace of God, when the subject prescribed for our discourse is Prayer.^[63]

Although brief, Origen provides the reader with few insights about Tatiana. The reference to Sarah could be interpreted in several ways.

First, it seems likely that Tatiana was not a young woman but a mature one, like Abraham’s wife in the Genesis narrative. It was fairly common for women who had reached an advanced age to embrace a life of ascetism and prayer, thus the assumption is fairly plausible.^[64]

Second, the mention of Sarah may indicate that Tatiana was leading an ascetic life characterized by continence and virtue, qualities that Origen deem Sarah to allegorically represent.^[65] Most likely, these are the attributes that qualify her as a “manful” woman. Most women who were praised for their virtue are called manly. Praising a woman by likening her to a man was regarded as the highest form of compliment by all early Christian authors and serves as the primary trope in the representation of women.^[66] Mygdonia, Maximilla, Thecla, Perpetua, Gorgonia, Olympia are other famous examples of mainly women, but many more could be named. Such a language is usually explained through the so-called one-sex model by Thomas Laqueur, who explained well how the ancient Graeco-Roman world considered women as a non-fully formed male human being.^[67] By calling Tatiana “manful,” Origen employs one of the most common tropes associated with women’s virtue. However, his rationale for why a virtuous woman should be likened to a man is thoroughly explained in his Homilies on Joshua, where he explicitly assigns metaphorical significance to gender. He establishes a clear hierarchy: masculine souls are those capable of achieving divine perfection, whereas feminine souls are those unable to free themselves from passions and earthly pleasures.^[68] This interpretation allows women to be described as manly and men as womanish, depending on their spiritual virtues. Thus, when Tatiana is described as manly, it is a recognition of her ascetic continence and spiritual progress towards God.

Third, the reference to Sarah might also allude to Tatiana being Ambrose’s sister, drawing from Genesis 20:2 where Abraham tells Pharao that Sarah is his sister. Some scholars give credence to the possibility that Tatiana was part of Ambrose’s family.^[69] Most have dismissed the idea that Tatiana was Ambrose’s wife, as Eusebius identifies Marcella as his spouse in one of the epistles.^[70] Be as it may, it seems reasonable to assume that she was close to Ambrose and interested in pursuing a life of prayer and intellectual askesis. Addressing a book like On Prayer to both a man and a woman reflects Origen’s pastoral concern to engage an audience that included women. This work contains several examples of Origen addressing women’s spirituality and practices of prayer. In such practices, women are considered as capable as men and are strenuously invited to pursue a life of prayer just like men.^[71]

3.5 Origen and Imperial Women: Julia Mamea and Marcia Otacilia Severa

If we are to believe Eusebius, Origen seems to have had at least two illustrious and powerful women among his intellectual audience: the emperor’s mother Julia Mamaea and the wife of the emperor Philip, Marcia Otacilia Severa. About Julia Mamaea, Eusebius records:

When Origen’s fame had spread everywhere, reports even reached as far as the mother of the emperor, named Mamaea, a most god-fearing woman if there ever was one. Consequently, she made a great fuss to request to see the man and to test his understanding of divine matters, which everyone was marvelling about. She was in fact staying in Antioch, and sent her military bodyguard to summon him. After he spent a period of time with her and gave many demonstrations of the glory of the Lord and the virtue of the divine teaching, he hastened to his usual occupations.^[72]

About Severa, Eusebius writes that he was collecting Origen’s work and letters:

His letter to the emperor, Philipp, and another to Philipp’s wife Severa, and various others to other people are also in circulation. Of these, whatever we have been able to collect from what has been preserved scattered about in various places we catalogued in individual volumes, so that they would no longer be scattered.^[73]

Origen never mentions or alludes to encounters with the two imperial women – whether through letters or in person – nor does he mention traveling to Antioch. In their detailed analysis of Origen’s journeys, Miriam DeCock and Christian Djurslev observed that Origen predominantly refers to his travels to the Holy Land.^[74] These references often serve to support his spiritual interpretations, which he justifies by correcting erroneous geographical information – errors he can verify because he has personally visited the sites.^[75] As for his visit to Antioch, one should bear in mind that the city was, in Eusebius’ time, one of the most important cultural centres of the empire. Therefore, it plays right into Eusebius’ goal to portray Origen as present in these political centres. Nevertheless, there are other factors to consider. The first is the Severian politics and attitude towards intellectuals in the empire, as recently reconstructed by Jared Secord.^[76] Secord builds a case in favour of the plausibility of Eusebius’ news that Origen visited Julia Mamaea in Antioch, as the interest shown by the mother of the emperor for Origen’s theology plays well in the grand scheme of the re-evaluation of non-Helleno-centric culture pursued during the reign of Alexander Severus. The emperor and his mother gave greater prominence to the oriental disciplines (including Christianity) than previous emperors. In Secord’s reconstruction, Origen was similar enough to a Roman pagan philosopher and intellectual to be well-accepted at court, but sufficiently different to fit in the inclusive intellectual landscape promoted by the Severian rule.

A greater degree of scepticism needs to be used when considering a possible epistolary exchange between Origen and the imperial couple of Philip the Arab and Severa. The alleged sympathy of the emperor for Christianity is an object of many discussions, most of which agree that Philip was never a Christian.^[77] On the contrary, Eusebius is the first historian to portray Philip as the first “Christian” emperor, and the correspondence with Origen would accredit his claim. It is thus essential to exercise considerable caution regarding Eusebius’ portrayal of Origen as a transformative figure in the imperial stance towards Christianity. Nonetheless, his narrative offers intriguing insights into women and imperial power. While most likely fictitious, Eusebius’ depiction of Origen’s proximity to political power through the mediation of women subtly stresses the forms of soft power women could wield within the framework of Roman imperial politics.^[78]