Savellius of Ptolemaida

Biographical information about him is very scarce. It is only known that he was a native of Ptolemaida of Libya in the Pentapolis and lived about half of the III century . In view of the influence and respect that Savelly enjoyed among his contemporaries, some German writers (Walch, Dörner, and others) suggest that Savellius was vested with the title of presbyter . It can also be assumed that Savelly received a broad scientific education and was a subtle thinker and dialectician ; its system in its completeness, consistency, and completeness occupies the same place in the school of patri-Passian anti-Trinitarians as the system of Pavel Samosatsky - in the school of anti-Trinitarians of the Evionites.

Savellius’s doctrine represents the complete development of the system of monarchian-modalists ; he first introduced the third person of the Holy Trinity , the Holy Spirit , into the circle of his contemplation, and thus completed their teaching. God in Himself, being in a state of perfect rest or silence ( Greek σιωπών ), is a pure monad , alien to all discrimination; but, going out for creation and thinking about the world from his silence or becoming the Word speaking , He appears in three different forms ( Greek σχηματισμούς ) - the Father , the Son, and the Spirit . In the Old Testament He appears as the Father giving laws to people, in the New He appeared as the Son saving people and continues to appear as the Spirit sanctifying them. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which Savellius compares with the body, soul, and spirit, then with the appearance of the Sun and its light and warmth, thus constitute three persons ( Greek πρόσωπα ), through which the divine monad gradually manifests itself in the world ; but these πρόσωπα are not persons in the sense of real, independent persons, but in the sense of only external forms of detection in the world of monads, which therefore have real significance only in relation to the World and then only for a certain time. When the Father revealed himself in the world, neither the Son nor the Spirit existed, and when the Son began to reveal himself, the Father ceased to exist, with the beginning of the revelation of the Spirit, the Son ceased to exist; the time will come when the Holy Spirit, having finished his revelation, will return to the indifferent divine monad where the Father and the Son returned.

Dionysius of Alexandria was the strongest and most active opponent of this heresy, acting against it both verbally and in writing. Alexandria Cathedral (261) condemned Savellius; Dionysius, Bishop of Rome , who was informed of the heresy of Savelius, also condemned him at the Roman Council (262). Dionysius of Alexandria wrote against Savelli several letters to different persons, of which not one was preserved intact. Only a small passage has survived from the Epistle to Euphranor and Ammonius against Savelly in Epistola de sententia Dionysii Alexandrini Athanasius is the very one to which the Arians especially pointed out as evidence of unanimity with them. Dionysius. Defending against Savelly the difference and personal difference of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, sv. Dionysius became interested in polemics with his opponents and used some careless expressions in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Son of God. Among the Alexandrians there were dissatisfied with his expressions in a letter to the Savellians Ammonius and Euphranorus and accused him of Dionysius of Rome of rejecting the eternity of the Son, separating Him from the Father, not recognizing Him as consubstantial with the Father and reckoning him among the creatures. This compelled Dionysius of Alexandria to write a response essay to Dionysius of Rome, entitled «λέγχος καί απολογία, in which satisfactory answers were given to all the indicated points of the charge.

By the end of the III century, Savellianism weakened. However, in the IV century. adherents of Savelianism , for example, Markell of Ankirsky and his pupil Fotim, were ready to restore it and support it in a modified form, but their attempt was not successful. If the church writers IV century. in their polemic works against Arianism they often stop at the teachings of Savellius and his school, then only with the aim of eliminating the reproach that the Arians did for the Orthodox, as if the Orthodox with their teaching on the consubstantialism of the Son of God with God the Father, following the example of Savellius and his followers, destroy the hypostatic distinction between the first and second persons Trinity, identifying them and merging into one person.

• Gusev D. "The heresy of the antitrinitarians of the third century" (Kazan, 1872).
• Savelliy // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Sylvester, “The Experience of Orthodox Dogmatic Theology”, vol. II, Kiev, 1884.