Saint Alexander

Description

Saint Alexandros, the Archbishop of Constantinople. Saint Alexandros lived at the time of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. He was one of the Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Synod which, in 325, in Nicaea, condemned the Arian heresy. The Archbishop of Constantinople at that time was Saint Mitrofanis, but, since he was very old and sick he was represented at the synod by Alexandros, who was still a priest. It was often the case that, for a variety of reasons, bishops were represented at synods by priests.
Saint Alexandros really was a bishop of the Church who was promoted by God. After the synod and the condemnation of Arius, and angel of the Lord appeared to the aged Archbishop Mitrofanis and revealed the will of God to him. First he confirmed that Alexandros had been his worthy representative at the synod and then told him that the latter would be his successor on the archiepiscopal throne This became generally known, and indeed, in a little while, after Mitrofanis had fallen asleep in the Lord, Alexandros was elected and succeeded him on the archiepiscopal throne. God knows his people and calls them at the proper time.
The first Ecumenical Synod condemned the heresy of Arius, but the turbulence in the Church had not subsided. And to this day it still hasn’t. The Arian heresy is the root of all heresies, some of which still trouble the Church today. Such as, for example the heresies of Millennialism or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Like Arius, Millennialists deny the divinity of Christ; Arius said of Christ: “There was a time when He was not”, meaning that He came later, that He is a creation. This is what the Millennialists say, too. [Even Islam, which, when it first appeared was considered a Christian heresy, holds this view in a more extreme form].
It was not only at the synod, that Saint Alexandros opposed the heresy, but also later, as Archbishop of Constantinople. Constantine the Great’s successor was of an Arian frame of mind and the Orthodox bishops now had to confront not merely the heresy, but also the political authority, which sympathized with and assisted the heresy. It was not only in the ancient persecutions that the Church found itself in opposition to state power, but also in the Christian states themselves. Often enough, the erroneous notions of the leaders of the state or their political interests brought them into conflict with the faith and order of the Church.