But what about that esteemed early church "father" who made himself a eunuch?
Origen was esteemed in the fourth century by the Cappadocian Fathers, who compiled an anthology of his best works, the Philocalia, not to be confused with the far more important Philokalia compiled in the 18th century by Ss. Nicodemus and Macarius on Mount Athos (which is a vast anthology that starts in the fourth century and continues unril the time it was compiled, and is perhaps the most influential collection of writings on Orthodox theology, after the Bible, the second most important book in an Orthodox library). Philocalia means "love of beauty" and was a common title for anthologies. His influence was considerable.
However, later in the fourth century, as copies of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, which contained an account of Origen's self castration, began to circulate throughout the Empire, his popularity waned rather substantially. Not just on account of that, but rather, because an increasing number of prominent bishops concluded that the Arian heresy was an extrapolation of his writings. Most notably St. Epiphanius of Salamis, author of the Panarion, who classified Origenism as a hersesy, and St. Jerome, who had rather a bitter row with Lucifer of Cagliari (known in Sardinia as St. Lucifer; he is venerated as a saint; at the time the name meant light bearer and was not firmly associated with Satan, and if memory serves there were also a few Martyrs of the great third century persecutions called Lucifer, but Lucifer of Cagliari, a supporter of Origen, is not venerated as a saint anywhere except Sardinia).
By the sixth century, Origen was blamed not only for Arianism, but also for Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Apollinarianism, and several other heresies. As such Emperor Justinian anathematized him in what was considered historically the first act of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Many of his books, in fact most, were burned, but he, being a theological Isaac Asimov, wrote so much that we still have a large number of his works, the crown jewells of which are in the Philocalia of the Cappadocians (Ss. Basil, Gregory the Theologian and Gregory of Nyassa). In the 20th century, there has been an a move to rehabilitate Origen. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia attempted to argue his anathematizTion was invalid as the Emperor had no ecclesial right to pronounce an anathema (true, but both the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox accepted it, making it official), that the fifth Ecumenical council wasn't a proper ecumenical council per se (which was wrong; the Sixth and Seventh Councils explicitly cited it as such) and that Origen was forced by the Romans to castrate himself under duress (possibly true).
But either way, Origen is not a saint, he is widely regarded as anathematized heresiarch, and his actions violated the third century Apostolic Canons as well as the canons of Nicea; canon I may have been issued as a reiteration of the Aposrolic canon so as to discourage people from following his example (Eusebius of Caesarea, an admirer of Origen and our chief source for the story of his self castration, was a very prominent participant at Nicea, because he alone did not want to adopt the Nicene Creed as written but rather reach a theological compromise with Arius, fearful of the dreadful schism and persecution the church would endure as a result of insisting on Truth; the church did endure and survive the schism and persecution. So whereas it's possible the Cappadocians, who were not present at Nicea were unaware of Origen's self castration, it's also quite possible that it was at Nicea that this fact of the austere writers life first Beca,e widely known. Either way, Origen by the end of the fourth century had been discredited on theological grounds; his self inflicted lack of genitalia however doubtless fanned the flames of his anathematization.
