Pope Julian of Alexandria

Overview

Saint Julian was the eleventh patriarch of the See of Saint Mark at Alexandria, with his tenure dated to 180–189. The Coptic Encyclopedia describes his period in office as ten years and places it during the reigns of the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. It records his burial beside the remains of Saint Mark in the Church of Bucalis at Alexandria.¹

The encyclopedia’s list of saints identifies Julian as a second-century patriarch of Alexandria and gives his feast day as 8 Baramhat. This is also the day recorded for his burial in the separate biographical entry, bringing the calendar notice and the burial account into agreement on the date associated with his remembrance.¹²

History and origins

Place in the Alexandrian succession

The patriarchal table places Julian between Agrippinus and Demetrius I. Agrippinus appears as the tenth patriarch, with a tenure of 167–180; Julian as the eleventh, serving in 180–189; and Demetrius I as the twelfth, serving in 189–231. Julian therefore belongs to the late second-century succession of Alexandrian church leaders, immediately before the much longer patriarchate assigned to Demetrius.³

The same table records Julian’s provenance as “unknown.” Its identification of him with Alexandria is thus an identification of his episcopal see, not evidence for a particular birthplace or place of formation.³

Imperial setting and length of office

Both the short biography and the patriarchal table associate Julian with Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. The table dates the emperors’ reigns to 161–180 and 180–192 respectively. On that chronology, the opening year assigned to Julian’s patriarchate coincides with the transition between the two reigns, while the remaining years of his tenure fall within the reign of Commodus.¹³

The biographical entry preserves two ways of expressing the duration of Julian’s office: the year range 180–189 and the statement that he served for ten years. Both should be retained as the source gives them, rather than replacing either with a more precise term of office not supplied by the entry.¹

Burial and the Church of Bucalis

Burial beside Saint Mark

Julian was laid to rest on 8 Baramhat “next to the remains of Saint Mark” in the Church of Bucalis at Alexandria. The burial notice links his place in the succession of the See of Saint Mark with a resting place beside the evangelist himself.¹

Julian was not the only early Alexandrian patriarch whose burial is described in these terms. The entry for Justus, the sixth patriarch, dates his tenure to 122–130 and states that he was laid to rest on 12 Ba’unah beside Saint Mark’s remains in the same church. The two notices document a shared burial location for these early patriarchs, although their recorded burial days differ.⁴

Bucalis in the account of the church’s origins

The account of Anianus supplies the earlier setting of Bucalis. It relates that, after an absence of two years, Mark returned to Alexandria and found that the Christian community had grown sufficiently to build its own church at Bucalis, on the shore of the eastern harbor, identified as the Portus Magnus of the Ptolemies.⁵

That account quotes the History of the Patriarchs describing the location as “the Cattle-Pasture, near the sea, beside a rock from which stone is hewn.” Read alongside Julian’s burial notice, this places his resting place within a church associated in the historical tradition with the community established during Mark’s ministry.⁵¹

The later biography of Achillas likewise calls the Church at Bucalis “the oldest in Alexandria.” These references give historical context to Julian’s burial without attributing the foundation or construction of the church to Julian himself.⁶⁵¹

Liturgical commemoration

The explicit calendrical information for Julian is his feast on 8 Baramhat. The saints list identifies him by both his period and his office—“second-century patriarch of Alexandria”—thereby distinguishing the commemoration from those of other saints with similar names.²

The biographical entry specifically describes 8 Baramhat as the day on which he was “laid to rest,” whereas the saints list labels it his “feast day.” These are complementary statements: one records the burial date, and the other the date of commemoration.¹²

Names, titles, and distinctions

Patriarch and pope

The principal biographical entry is headed “Julian, Saint” and calls him the “eleventh patriarch of the See of Saint Mark.” These are the explicit designations used for him in that source.¹

The title “Pope” requires a historical qualification. The encyclopedia’s entry for Heraclas, the thirteenth patriarch, says that Heraclas “presumably was the first head of the church to bear the title of POPE.” Consequently, the designation “Pope Julian” should not by itself be taken as evidence that Julian bore that title during his lifetime; the source’s statement about the title’s early use is itself qualified.⁷¹

Other figures named Julian

The patriarch should be distinguished from “Julian and His Mother,” who appear in the saints list as martyrs in Alexandria with a feast day of 23 Bashans. Their identification and commemoration differ from those of the second-century patriarch remembered on 8 Baramhat.⁸²

Other namesakes appear in the account of Theodosius I: Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus, associated with Julianist theology, and a priest named Julian whom Theodosius commissioned for the Nubian mission. Neither is the second-century patriarch of Alexandria.⁹¹

Sources and reference tradition

The dedicated encyclopedia entry on Julian is signed by Aziz S. Atiya. Its bibliography cites Atiya’s History of Eastern Christianity, published at Millwood, New York, in 1980. The separate patriarchal table confirms Julian’s ordinal position and dates, while the saints list supplies the explicit designation of 8 Baramhat as his feast day.¹⁰³²