Fathers of the Church

From His Epistle on the Question of the Passover, Written in the Name of the Synod of Caesarea

Description

In this Epistle, Theophilus refers to Alexandria as the authority for the (Paschal) custom that he is adopting.

Provenance

Taken from a collection of fragmented writings of the second and third centuries. Though all of the bishops of Asia Minor decided to celebrate the Paschal feast in the Ephesine (and more Judaistic) way (on the fourteenth day of the moon), Theophilus, as head of the Council of Caesarea, chose to adopt the more Catholic way, the Paschal Sunday.

by Theophilus, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine in 180 A.D. | translated by Rev. B. P. Pratten

ENDEAVOUR also to send abroad copies of our epistle among all the churches, so that those who easily deceive their own Souls may not be able to lay the blame on us. We would have you know, too, that in Alexandria also they observe the festival on the same day as ourselves. For the Paschal letters are sent from us to them, and from them to us: so that we observe the holy day in unison and together.

Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in 1867. (ANF 8, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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