Hypatia lived in Roman Egypt around 370 CE to about 415 CE, and was a noted mathematician and philosopher. She was daughter to the mathematician Theon Alexandricus, who was also a librarian at the library of Alexandria. Hypatia was educated in Athens and Italy, and was a Neoplatonist. Which means that she took her teachings from the mystical philosophy of Plato, she was also schooled by Plotinus who was a Neoplatonist philosopher as well. In around 400 CE, she became head of the Platonist school of Alexandria, where she taught philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and the philosophy of Neoplatonism.
Many people of her time said that she was charismatic and a great teacher. That she would stand next to men and be admired by her great knowledge. At a time in history, when Christianity was slowly taking over, a powerful, and smart woman, was not seen by all as a beneficial thing to their Christian society. Although her students were a very mixed bunch ranging from Pagans, Christians and foreigners who would travel far for her famous teachings. One in particular, Synesius of Cyrene, who later became the Bishop of Ptolemais, is said to have written letters to Hypatia, in which showed great admiration and reverence for her knowledge and her teachings.
Over time, Hypatia's teachings became associated with what the Christians considered to be Pagan. In about 415 CE, while Hypatia was traveling home on her chariot, she was ambushed by a mob of Christians. They continued to attack her, strip her naked as a form of humiliation, and drag her body through the streets to a Christianized temple where they killed her. The reports suggest that the mob of Christians skinned her body with shards of pottery, and then burned her remains. It is obvious that the Christians killed her because they felt threatened by her depth of knowledge and philosophical concepts. Women, to the Christians, were not supposed to be educated and smart, this was seen as a Pagan tradition.
It is said that after this brutal and horrifying event, is essentially when the fall of Alexandria began. Many scholars left after the murder of Hypatia. Maybe for fear of their own lives, or for disgust and sadness at the brutally violent display the Christians performed in order to squash out philosophical ancient knowledge, so they could come into power.
Hypatia was a very notable, smart and powerful woman in her day. A Warrior Woman of her time, and she died for her knowledge because a powerful woman was seen as a threat to the Christians.
Here are some notable quotes by Hypatia:
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all
"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final."
I hope you enjoyed learning about one of the many powerful women in history!
For more info on Hypatia, check out Biography of Hypatia and also Wikipedia
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, artist: Charles William Mitchell
Reference: theartofastralprojection.blogspot.com
By John Sanidopoulos
Despite the great popularity of Saint Katherine among all Christians, the oldest reference to this fourth century martyr comes from a seventh century Syrian liturgical text. The oldest life we have comes from the "Menologion" of Emperor Basil II who died in 886. In this she is called "Aikaterine", and the report runs as follows:
"The martyr Aikaterine was the daughter of a rich and noble prince of Alexandria. She was very beautiful, and being at the same time highly talented, she devoted herself to Greek literature as well as to the study of the languages of all nations, and so she became wise and learned. And it happened that the Greeks held a festival in honor of their idols; and seeing the slaughter of animals, she was so greatly moved that she went to the King Maximinus and expostulated with him in these words: 'Why hast thou left the living God to worship lifeless idols?' But the Emperor caused her to be thrown into prison, and to be punished severely. He then ordered fifty orators to be brought, and bade them to reason with Aikaterine, and confute her, threatening to burn them all if they should fail to overpower her. The orators, however, when they saw themselves vanquished, received baptism, and were burnt forthwith, while she was beheaded."
Because of the long gap between the time of her martyrdom and the first written testimony, many scholars and authorities have concluded that St. Katherine never existed, such as the Vatican did in 1969 (though restored in 2002). Some have even postulated that her story is an allegory, like many scenes from the lives of various saints, such as the story of St. Christopher (Christ-bearer) who is said to have carried the infant Jesus on his shoulder, or the story of St. George who is said to have slain a dragon to save a princess. Ultimately these things can only be proposed as theories for lack of evidence, but seem likely.
Interestingly, the original Greek form of the name " (Aikaterine) or " (Ekaterine) is etymologically very obscure and much argued over. The name does not seem to be rooted in any Greek word, although it has been said to derive from the words " (aei) which means "ever" and " (katharos) which means "pure". What we do know is that this name never appears before it is associated with Saint Katherine of Alexandria. This is very much like St. Phanourios (the Revealer) who is said to be the patron of finding lost items, and some consider to be merely an epithet for St. George whose life he resembles. If this is the case, could Katherine merely be an epithet to support the allegory? After all, one of the chief characteristics about St. Katherine was that she dedicated her life to Christ as a virgin, which brought about the late western medieval tradition of her being called the Bride of Christ.
One of the more interesting theories is that the story of St. Katherine is based on the life of Hypatia, a neoplatonist philosopher from Alexandria who was admired by both pagans and Christians for her virtue and learning. She also was a woman who dedicated her life to virginity in Alexandria for the sake of her learning, and was brutally murdered in 415 by a group of extremist Christian monks primarily for political reasons. It is not difficult to see the parallels between the lives of St. Katherine and Hypatia, for the little we know of both, but are they in fact the same?
In the Middle Ages a tradition began to circulate that Hypatia, through her student Synesius the Bishop of Cyrene, became a Christian. No one knows for sure how this tradition started, but one argument can be made that it did flourish in the city of Laodicea in Asia Minor. Vasilios Myrslides writes in his book "Biography of the Greek Philosopher Hypatia" (B., , Athens, 1926; see also.., , Athens, 1954) that in the village of Denizli of Laodicea there used to be a church "dedicated to the honor and memory of Hypatia, the philosopher and martyr". He further states that this church celebrated its feast on November 25th "for the Virgin-Martyr Saint Katherine in whose name crowds of believers who lived in the surrounding area would celebrate the wise daughter and rhetor Hypatia" (., " 1953). Myrslides himself was a school teacher in the village of Denizli at the School of the Greek Community in 1897, so his testimony is very reliable.
According to the local tradition of Denizli, Synesios of Cyrene (+ 416), to show repentance on behalf of Christians for the death of Hypatia, is the one who called a local synod on November 25, 415 after her death, in which he presented a letter of Hypatia where she said she had "a desire to die a Christian" and to be baptized on Holy Saturday of that year. The synod decided to thus honor her memory on November 25th, which became the feast of St. Katherine later on. From this we can deduce that the people of Denizli saw St. Katherine as a baptized version of Hypatia.
From this information, we see that at least for the Orthodox Christians living in Denizli in the early 20th century, Hypatia and Saint Katherine were one and the same person, whose relics are said to rest at the Monastery of Saint Katherine at the foot of Mount Sinai.
