Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem, bishop (c. 99 - c. 215)

According to Eusebius, Narcissus is the fifteenth bishop since the ruin of Jerusalem under Hadrian and the thirtieth in regular succession from the apostles.^[6] The see of Jerusalem is then a second-rank see in Palestine: the neighbouring ecclesiastical metropolis is Caesarea, governed at the same time by Theophilus. The two men will nevertheless, together, decide a question that concerns all of Christendom.

Eusebius, who says he relies on the testimony of the brothers who succeeded Narcissus, notes that his life was remarkable for its firmness and its continence, and that he already bore, in Eusebius's expression, a “philosophical life”, that is, a recognised asceticism.^[7] This reputation is the key to what follows: when adversaries seek to ruin him, the faithful will not believe them.

The date of his birth is not documented. The tradition, taken up by the martyrology and by the hagiographical notices, places it around 99, because a letter of Alexander says he was one hundred and sixteen years old at the end of his life. The same logic places his death around 215-216.^[8][9][10]

In the last century of the second century, a divergence divides the Churches. Those of Asia, faithful to a very ancient tradition, celebrate the Christian Passover on the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever the day of the week, that is, the same day as the Jewish Passover, joining to it the end of the fast. The other Churches, especially Roman and Western, wait for Sunday, the day of the Resurrection.^[11][12]

Assemblies of bishops are held on all sides. Eusebius has preserved the memory of several concordant decrees: at Rome under Pope Victor I, in Gaul with Saint Irenaeus, in Pontus, at Corinth with Bacchylus, and in Palestine, where a synod is presided over by Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem.^[13][14]

“Let the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord be celebrated on no other day than the Lord's day, and let us observe the close of the paschal fast only on that day.” Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, V, 23, translated from the Greek text^[15]

This is therefore well the sense in which Narcissus decided: against the Quartodeciman practice, and for the Sunday celebration of the Resurrection. Eusebius also preserves a second writing of the bishops of Palestine, in which appear Narcissus and Theophilus, with Cassius of Tyre and Clarus of Ptolemais.^[16][17]

The controversy is not closed without tension: Pope Victor I at one point wants to excommunicate the Churches of Asia, and Irenaeus of Lyon dissuades him forcefully, out of concern for unity.^[18] Discipline eventually prevails everywhere in the sense desired by the Palestinian synods: the Christian Passover is celebrated on Sunday. It is on this precise point that the memory of Narcissus has survived.

Eusebius reports, as a tradition of the brothers of the community, a miracle attributed to Narcissus during the Paschal vigil: the oil for the lamps would have run out, and Narcissus would have had water poured into the lamps after praying. Eusebius notes that a small quantity of this oil was reportedly preserved for a long time in Jerusalem in memory of the prodigy.^[19][20]

“Beyond all expectation, by a wonderful and divine power, the nature of the water was changed into that of the oil.” Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, VI, 9, translated from the Greek text^[21]

Eusebius adds that the same Narcissus was the victim of a serious calumny: men, he says, “unable to endure the firmness of his life” and fearing to be punished for their own misdeeds, spread a terrible accusation against him. To make themselves believed, they swore formidable oaths: one called down fire on his house, another a disease, the third the loss of his eyes.^[22][23]

Narcissus was not able to endure this injustice. Eusebius writes that he fled from the assembly of the faithful and hid “in deserted and secret places” for many years.^[24] As for the calumniators, Eusebius reports that the oaths turned against them: the first perished with his family in the fire of his house, the second was covered with the disease he had wished upon himself, and the third ended by publicly confessing the plot, then consumed himself in tears to the point of losing his sight.^[25][26]

Here again, honesty is required. These three misfortunes are presented by Eusebius as the judgment of God on a perjury, and not as a demonstration of canonical innocence. What is retained with certainty is the persecution of which Narcissus is the victim, and his voluntary withdrawal, which already belongs to the heroic age of Christian asceticism.

Narcissus having disappeared without leaving an address, the neighbouring bishops judged it necessary to provide for the see of Jerusalem. Eusebius names the three bishops who succeeded one another then: Dius, then Germanio, then Gordius.^[27][28]

Under the episcopate of the latter, Narcissus reappeared, writes Eusebius, “as if he were coming back from the dead”. The community implored him to resume the episcopate: the very retirement in which he had lived, and the punishment with which God had struck his accusers, had increased the respect shown to him.^[29]

The return of Narcissus does not mean that he can govern for long: he is already very aged. Eusebius says he was no longer able to fulfil the functions of his charge.^[30] This is why the texts that follow speak not of a new episcopal reign, but of a co-bishopric with a younger man, called to share the charge.

At the end of his life, Narcissus is therefore bishop of Jerusalem with Alexander. The latter, who was already bishop of another parish, is called, according to Eusebius, by a nocturnal revelation, and joins Jerusalem from Asia Minor, where he had first exercised his episcopate.^[31][32]

Eusebius has preserved a letter of Alexander to the Antinoites, in which the latter announces the co-bishopric and has the faithful greeted by Narcissus. The end of the letter is particularly valuable for the chronology:

“Narcissus greets you, he who governed the episcopate here before me, and who is now associated with me in prayer, being one hundred and sixteen years old; and he exhorts you, as I do myself, to be of one heart.” Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, VI, 11, translated from the Greek text^[33]

It is this “one hundred and sixteen years” that founds the reputation of longevity of Narcissus, and that has allowed hagiographers to reconstruct a birth around 99. Alexander then became the sole bishop of the see of Jerusalem; Eusebius has preserved several of his letters: to the Antinoites, to the Church of Antioch and to Origen, as well as the letter written jointly with Theoctistus of Caesarea to Demetrius of Alexandria.^[34][35]

An episode sometimes wrongly attached to the biography of Narcissus is the letter concerning the young Origen: its co-signatories are not Narcissus and Alexander, but Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea, and it is addressed to Demetrius of Alexandria to defend the permission given to Origen, still a layman, to expound the Scriptures publicly at Caesarea.^[36][37] It dates from the years of Origen's presbyteral ordination (c. 230), thus well after the probable death of Narcissus: it does not belong to the life of the old bishop, but it shows that his successor remained involved in the great affairs of the Church.

The chronology of Narcissus must be handled with prudence. On the one hand, Eusebius of Caesarea is a source of the first rank: he lived a generation after the last witnesses, he cites his informants, and he uses letters now lost.^[38] On the other hand, the figures he gives, notably the one hundred and sixteen years, are precise and extraordinary: they belong to a local tradition that is not implausible, but that cannot be checked against other documents.

What is certain is the episcopate of Narcissus in Jerusalem at the end of the second century, his role in the Paschal synods, the calumny of which he is the victim and his withdrawal into the desert, his return and the co-bishopric with Alexander. What is plausible is the extreme longevity attributed to him, and which justifies the singular place he holds in the memory of the Church of Jerusalem. What is contingent is the prodigy of the oil, and the manner in which the calumniators were reportedly punished: they are reported by Eusebius as a tradition from brother to brother, and they belong to the register of the sign rather than to that of political history.^[39][40][41]

Saint Narcissus is celebrated on 29 October in the Roman calendar. Nominis carries this date, with the mention “local feast” for certain traditions.^[42][43]

Iconography usually shows him as a bishop, according to the usage for the Church Fathers of Palestine: liturgical vestments, sometimes a mitre or a crosier in Western representations. The stained glass window of Bénévent-l'Abbaye shows him thus, in a series devoted to the bishops of Jerusalem.^[44] The engraving by Jacques Callot (1636), kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, depicts him likewise, an old bishop in pontifical vestments.^[45][46][47]

Two historical scenes are sometimes illustrated: the Paschal vigil of the oil, and the co-bishopric with Alexander. These two motifs are drawn from Eusebius and not from a romantic hagiography.^[48]

• Saint Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 265-339): the author of the Church History, sole source of the life of Narcissus.
• Saint Victor I: the pope of the Paschal controversy, who wished to decide with authority.
• Origen (c. 185-253): defended before Demetrius of Alexandria by the joint letter of Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea.
• Saint Alexander of Jerusalem: the coadjutor and successor of Narcissus.