#17 – Hypatia of Alexandria

* Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Deuteronomy 12:2-3 * I want to tell the story of Hypatia of Alexandria * They were known as the ‘parabalani’ – ‘the reckless ones’. * At first, the name had been a compliment. * In Alexandria, city founded by Alexander the Great himself, built by Alexander’s general Ptolemy, and his son Ptolemy II, 700 years old in the 400s CE. * At the crossroads of busy trading routes. * Someone needed to carry away the bodies of the sick and the weak. * From 249 to 262, the Roman Empire had endured the Plague of Cyprian. * It erupted in Ethiopia around Easter of 250 CE. * St. Cyprian (200-258 CE), bishop of Carthage, remarked that it appeared as if the world was at an end. * We know if mostly through his first-hand account: “This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened;—is profitable as a proof of faith. What a grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an unshaken mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! what sublimity, to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to rejoice, and to embrace the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing forth our faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the narrow way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life and faith according to His own judgment!” * Sufferers experienced bouts of diarrhea, continuous vomiting, fever, deafness, blindness, paralysis of their legs and feet, swollen throats and blood filled their eyes (conjunctival bleeding) while staining their mouths. * More often than not, death resulted. * The pagans interpreted it as a punishment from the gods. * Modern theories are that it was either smallpox, measles or ebola. * It lasted nearly 20 years and, at its height, reportedly killed as many as 5,000 people per day in Rome. * It killed millions, seriously decimated the Roman army, and had people fleeing from the countryside to the cities, bringing multiple problems, farming, city infrastructure, etc. * It coincided with the rise of Decius (deshus) as the emperor. * He introduced an edict which required every citizen of the empire to make a sacrifice in the presence of a magistrate. * Which of course the Christians refused to do. * Which lead to the first persecution of the Christians, the so-called Decian persecution. * And the plague was blamed on the Christians. * The gods were angry. * Anyway, back to the parabalani. * They were members of a Christian brotherhood who voluntarily undertook the care of the sick and the burial of the dead. * They knew they could die, catching the plague from the bodies they touched, but they did it anyway. * They came from the bottom of society: they were not wealthy, or educated, or even literate, but they had muscle, they had faith – and they had strength in numbers. *  By the beginning of the fifth century there were an estimated 800 members of the parabalani in Alexandri...