Providence. Of all the early Church fathers, he alone was
born of Christian parents, and had the signal grace of being
the son of a martyr. This he became steeped in the Christian
principles from his tenderest years, and this rendered him
capable of penetrating Christianity's most intimate mysteries.
31 From his early childhood he used to follow his father
Leonidas, asking him incessant questions about Life, the
Universe, and God. His young mind seemed to be possessed
of an insatiable desire for knowledge-always seeking, always
inquiring, always probing. It is related that his father, with
loving and tender pride and apprehension over his son's
dynamic intelligence, used to steal into the child's bedroom at
night, and, while he slept, kneel beside his bed and pray.
Then he would quietly kiss his son's chest over the heart,
which he considered to be a very special shrine of the Holy
Spirit.^4 And so it was, as time proved.
Origen attended not only the Catechetical School, but
was also a disciple of Ammonius Saccas, an Alexandrian, and
the founder of Neoplatonism, who, about the year 193 A.D.,
founded a school, of his own philosophy in Alexandria, his
birthplace.
- When the persecutions of Septimus Severus broke
out, Origen was still an adolescent, and the eldest of seven
brothers. Leonidas, his father, was amongst the first to be
seized by the Roman Prefect and thrown into prison. Young
Origen would fain have followed, for a live faith and an
ardent love burned within him, and he longed to receive the
Crown of Martyrdom, but his mother barred his way.
Providence guarded him for greater works, greater
achievements, and finally greater suffering, which he endured
towards the end of his life.
Meanwhile, Origen sent a letter to his father in