Pope Alexander I

Infobox Pope
English name=Saint Alexander I


birth_name=Alexander
term_start=ca. 106
term_end=ca. 115
predecessor=Evaristus
successor=Sixtus I
birth_date=unknown date
birthplace=Rome, Italy
dead=dead|death_date=ca. 115
deathplace=Rome, Italy
other=Alexander| infobox popestyles
papal name=Pope Alexander I
dipstyle=His Holiness
offstyle=Your Holiness
relstyle=Holy Father
deathstyle=Saint|

Pope Saint Alexander I was Pope from about 106 to 115. The Holy See's "Annuario Pontificio" (2008) identifies him as a Roman who reigned from 108 or 109 to 116 or 119. Some believe he suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Trajan or Hadrian, but this is improbable. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/14049/Saint-Alexander-I# Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Saint Alexander I"] ] In the article on Saint Alexander I in the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia, Thomas Shahan judges inaccurate the tradition that this Pope inserted into the Roman Canon the narration of the Last Supper (the "Qui pridie"). [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01285c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Pope St. Alexander I"] ] Pope Alexander I is also said to have introduced the use of blessing water mixed with salt for the purification of Christian homes from evil influences, and the custom of mixing water with the sacramental wine. This too is considered unlikely.

In some editions of the Roman Missal the Saint Alexander commemorated on 3 May is identified with Pope Alexander I. This identification is not found in the Tridentine Missal promulgated by Pope Pius V in 1570. Since nothing is known of the Saints Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus of 3 May other than their names and the facts that they were martyred and were buried at the seventh milestone of the Via Nomentana on that day, [Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1961), p. 122] the one whose name coincided with that of a Pope was identified with the Pope, as happened also in other cases: a martyr named Felix was even confused with Antipope Felix II. The identification of the martyr Alexander with the Pope was removed from the Roman Calendar by Pope John XXIII in 1960.

References

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01285c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Pope St. Alexander I"]
* [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/14049/Saint-Alexander-I# Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Saint Alexander I"]