Alexios

Description

Saint Alexis or Alexis of Rome or Alexis of Edessa (Greek: Όσιος Αλέξιος) was a fourth-century monastic who lived in anonymity and is known for his dedication to Christ. There are two versions of his life that are known to us, a Syriac one and a Greek one.
According to Syriac tradition St. Alexius was an Eastern saint whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome. The relocation of the veneration to Rome was facilitated by the belief that the saint was a native of Rome and had died there. This Roman connection stemmed from an earlier Syriac legend which recounted that during the episcopate of Bishop Rabbula (412–435) a “Man of God” who lived in Edessa, Mesopotamia, as a beggar, and who shared the alms he received with other poor people, was found to be a native of Rome after his death.

The Greek version of his legend made Alexius the only son of Euphemianus, a wealthy Christian Roman of the senatorial class. Alexius fled his arranged marriage to follow his holy vocation. Disguised as a beggar, he lived near Edessa in Syria, accepting alms even from his own household slaves, who had been sent to look for him but did not recognize him, until a miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later this image was called Madonna of St.Alexius) singled him out as a “Man of God.” (Greek: Άνθρωπος του Θεού)

Fleeing the resultant notoriety, he returned to Rome, so changed that his parents did not recognize him, but as good Christians took him in and sheltered him for seventeen years, which he spent in a dark cubbyhole beneath the stairs, praying and teaching catechism to children. After his death, his family found a note on his body which told them who he was and how he had lived his life of penance from the day of his wedding, for the love of God.

The Tridentine Calendar gave his feast day the rank of “Simple” but by 1862 it had become a “Semidouble” and, in Rome itself, a “Double”. It was reduced again to the rank of “Simple” in 1955 and in 1960 became a “Commemoration”. According to the rules in the present-day Roman Missal, the saint may now be celebrated everywhere on his feast day with a “Memorial”, unless in some locality an obligatory celebration is assigned to that day.

The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates St Alexius on 17 March. Five Byzantine Emperors, four Emperors of Trebizond and numerous other eastern European and Russian personalities have borne his name; see Alexius. There are numerous churches bearing his name in Greece and Russia but also the other orthodox countries. Saint Alexius is well known to the region of north Peloponnese because of the honorable skull of the Saint which is kept in the monastery of Agia Lavra. Churches dedicated to St. Alexius are found in Aigio and Patras.