Why was Origen not canonized?

[St_Francis]

He seems to have been important in the Early Church, and yet he was never canonized–i hope someone knows why not!

Thanks so much!

 

[estesbob]

He seems to have been important in the Early Church, and yet he was never canonized–i hope someone knows why not!

Thanks so much!

Good question. His writings are quoted in the daily Office of Readings but like you I wonder why he was never canonized.

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

I do stand to be corrected on this one, but I think because some of his teachings were not in line with Church teachings, and that he sometimes went of the rail

 

[hadulzo]

A priest told me Origen had a sexual arrousal issue and felt so guilty about it, he castrated himself. Since many Saints had strange behaviors I’m not sure why this would be a disqualifier. Also, heard there was a heresy issue, but that was cleared up.

 

[dmar198]

A priest told me Origen had a sexual arrousal issue and felt so guilty about it, he castrated himself. Since many Saints had strange behaviors I’m not sure why this would be a disqualifier. Also, heard there was a heresy issue, but that was cleared up.

“Cleared up” is an interesting word for what happened there. Some of his heresies were condemned and anathamatized at the fifth ecumenical Council. I wouldn’t call that “cleared up,” but I guess it is in a sense: an anathema can clarify a lot of things.

 

[po18guy]

“Some of his reputed teachings, such as the pre-existence of souls, the final reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil (the apokatastasis),[2] and the subordination of the Son of God to God the Father, later became controversial among Christian theologians.”

 

[sousley]

I understood that the castration was due to his then-understanding of the Gospel words regarding “some are born eunuchs and some become eunuchs for Christ”. After the episode, he left the area and was ordained as a priest in another area (I can’t remember the locales). A man who is castrated cannot be ordained as a priest, so his action was null. His teachings were later brought into question and addressed at the council, as PO18 stated. I am under the impression that he was not necessarily to be judged in an overly harsh way about them, as his exegesis was not intended to be contrary to Church teachings as nobody at that point in history had really offered Origen’s depth of theological supposition. Later exegesis revealed the error of these notions, but at the time they were made, there was no teaching on these topics, so he was considered in error, but not heretical.

 

[St_Francis]

Thanks, everyone! Now I understand better what happened with him.

 

[ready]

He seems to have been important in the Early Church, and yet he was never canonized–i hope someone knows why not!

Thanks so much!

He probably was never canonized because of the condemned teaching of his (condemned by the Church) – the condemned teaching that hell fire is not eternal (it is eternal) and that all condemned creatures eventually get reconciled to God (which they can’t). God bless you.