THEOGNOSTUS of ALEXANDRIA. — Writer of the catechetical school of Alexandria in the second half of the 3rd century, probably earlier than Pierius; according to Philip of Side, however, he would have succeeded him (H. Dodwellus, Dissertationes in Irenaeum, Oxford 1689, p. 488).
He wrote a kind of dogmatic work under the title of Hypotyposes in 7 books, perhaps following the example of Origen in his De principiis. It was, as it seems from Photius (Bibl., cod. 106), who still had the entire work in hand, a book for the school, which did not claim to be original in the face of the ideas of the master Origen. For this fidelity to Origen he was blamed by Photius. The judgment of St. Athanasius on T. was very favourable, as Stephen Gobarus had already noted (Photius, Bibl., cod. 232). Besides Photius’ account, there are some fragments of T. (Athanasius, Ep. 4 ad Serap., cap. 11; Ep. de decr. Nicaen. Synod., cap. 25; Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunom., III, 11, 121; ed. W. Jaeger, vol. II, p. 86, 24 ff.) and a fragment of the Venetian codex Marcianus, 502, f. 254; V. Diekamp, Theolog. Quartalschrift, Freiburg 1902, p. 483 ff.