Pope Justus of Alexandria

Overview

Justus was the sixth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, with a patriarchate dated 122–130. Aziz S. Atiya’s brief entry in The Coptic Encyclopedia places his tenure under Emperor Hadrian and records that he was laid to rest on 12 Ba’unah beside the remains of Saint Mark in the Church of Bucalis at Alexandria.¹

The encyclopedia’s patriarchal chronology independently gives the same dates and position in the succession. It places Justus between Primus, the fifth patriarch, and Eumenius, the seventh, while recording his provenance as unknown.² A separate reference list also identifies him specifically as a second-century patriarch of Alexandria, distinguishing him from another Justus described as an ascetic.³

History and origins

Place in the Alexandrian succession

The chronological sequence immediately surrounding Justus is straightforward: Primus held office in 109–122, Justus in 122–130, and Eumenius in 130–142. The same table dates Hadrian’s reign to 117–138, placing the whole of Justus’s recorded patriarchate within that emperor’s rule.²

The numbering belongs to a succession beginning with Mark and continuing through Anianus, Abilius, Cerdon, and Primus before reaching Justus. Thus, the designation “sixth patriarch” locates him within the earliest generations of Alexandrian church leadership rather than identifying a separate foundation or a new ecclesiastical office.²

Limits of the biographical record

The limited information about Justus fits the broader condition of the evidence for Alexandria’s early bishops. The encyclopedia’s entry on Demetrius I explains that, before Demetrius, very little is known beyond the names and dates of successive bishops. It adds that the History of the Patriarchs supplies little information about these early leaders and becomes more detailed from Demetrius onward.⁴

That account describes the early bishops collectively as moving secretly through Egypt to strengthen the faithful and appoint priests responsible for their congregations’ spiritual welfare. This is a general description of the period, not an individually documented itinerary or account of Justus’s activities.⁴ For Justus himself, the direct biographical entry preserves his office, dates, imperial contemporary, burial day, and burial place, while the chronological table explicitly leaves his provenance unknown.¹²

Burial and the Church of Bucalis

Burial beside Saint Mark

Justus’s burial is the most specific personal event recorded in his encyclopedia entry: he was laid to rest on 12 Ba’unah next to Saint Mark’s remains in the Church of Bucalis. The wording identifies this as the day of his burial; it does not explicitly label it a feast day.¹

His predecessor Primus was also buried near Saint Mark in the same church, on 3 Misra. Read together, the two entries establish a shared burial location for these successive patriarchs and a concrete association between their resting places and the remains of the evangelist.¹⁵ This connection is more firmly documented in the supplied accounts than any particular teaching, writing, or administrative act of Justus.¹

Bucalis in the foundation narrative

The encyclopedia’s account of Anianus connects Bucalis with the earliest Alexandrian Christian community. It relates that Mark returned to Alexandria after an absence of two years and found that the growing body of believers had been able to build a church there, on the shore of the eastern harbor, identified as the Portus Magnus of the Ptolemies.⁶

That account quotes the History of the Patriarchs describing the site as “the Cattle-Pasture, near the sea, beside a rock from which stone is hewn.” A separate entry on Achillas calls the church at Bucalis the oldest in Alexandria.⁶⁷ These descriptions place Justus’s burial within a church associated in the sources with the community’s beginnings, rather than merely at an otherwise unidentified Alexandrian location.¹⁶

Early succession traditions and their meaning

The account attributed to Mark

The Homily on Peter and Mark the Evangelist preserves a general tradition about the appointment of early Alexandrian bishops. In its account of the Synodicon, Mark came to Alexandria in Nero’s seventh regnal year, appointed Anianus bishop with twelve priests and seven deacons, and instructed the priests to choose a successor unanimously from among themselves when the bishop died.⁸

The prescribed action was immediate and communal: the priests were to lay hands on their chosen candidate “in the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” while the deceased bishop’s body was still present. The homily says that this arrangement continued from Anianus through Peter and explains its purpose as preventing appointment through the desire for authority or through a gift.⁸

Since Justus falls within the early succession covered by this account, the homily supplies a traditional framework in which his episcopate can be situated. It does not, however, narrate his own election or name the people who selected or ordained him.²⁸ Its principal contribution to understanding the period is therefore its stated ideal of unanimous, faith-grounded selection protected from ambition and financial influence.⁸

Differences among the accounts

The sources do not give an entirely uniform picture of the earliest arrangements. Whereas the homily says that Mark appointed twelve priests with Anianus, the encyclopedia’s account of Anianus gives three presbyters; both accounts give seven deacons.⁶⁸

There is also a difference between the homily’s general description of successors being selected from the priesthood and the entry on Primus. The latter interprets the History of the Patriarchs as describing Primus as a layman when chosen for the patriarchate.⁵⁸ These accounts should be retained as differing descriptions rather than combined into a definite reconstruction of Justus’s own election.⁵⁸

The numbering at the later end of the homily’s succession likewise differs from the encyclopedia’s chronology: the homily calls Peter the sixteenth bishop of Alexandria, whereas the table lists Theonas as sixteenth and Peter I as seventeenth. This discrepancy concerns the contextual succession narrative; the direct entry and chronological table agree in identifying Justus as sixth.¹²⁸⁹

Texts and terminology

The direct encyclopedia entry calls Justus “sixth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark,” while the homily uses “bishop” in its account of early Alexandrian succession. These are the supplied texts’ respective terms for describing the office and its continuity.¹⁸

The title “Pope” also requires historical care. The encyclopedia’s entry on Heraclas, patriarch in 231–247, states that he “presumably was the first head of the church to bear the title of POPE.” Consequently, the title used in this article should not be taken as evidence that Justus personally bore it during his lifetime; the source itself expresses the proposed association with Heraclas cautiously.¹⁰

For Justus’s burial date, the supplied entry uses the form Ba’unah, specifying its twelfth day. Its principal geographical designation is Bucalis, the Alexandrian church containing Saint Mark’s remains and Justus’s burial place.¹

Distinction from other figures named Justus

The patriarch must be distinguished from the fourth-century Egyptian martyr treated in a separate encyclopedia entry as “Justus, Saint.” That martyr belongs to the Antiochene cycle associated with the family of the Roman general Basilides; the title of his Passion also names his wife Stephanou, his daughter Sophia, and the martyr Eusebius, son of Basilides.¹¹

Those details belong to the martyr’s narrative, not to the second-century patriarch. The separation is important because the shared name alone does not connect the patriarch with that family or with the martyrdom account set under Diocletian.¹¹¹

The reference list further distinguishes “Justus, second-century patriarch of Alexandria” from “Justus,” an ascetic whose feast is given as 10 Tubah. That feast is attached to the ascetic’s entry and should not be transferred to Pope Justus.³