Alexius of Rome

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Alexius
birth_date=5th Century
death_date=5th Century
feast_day=17 July in the West; 17 March in the East
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church; Eastern Orthodox Church; Byzantine Catholic Churches; Syrian Orthodox Church; Armenian Orthodox Church; Maronites; Syrian Catholic Church; Armenian Catholic Church


imagesize=200px
caption="Saint Alexius"
birth_place=Rome, Roman Empire
death_place=Rome, Roman Empire
titles=Confessor
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=Pre-Congregation
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=holding a ladder; man lying beneath a staircase
patronage=Alexians; beggars; belt makers; nurses; pilgrims; travellers
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=

Saint Alexius was an Eastern saint whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome, a process facilitated by the fact that, according to the earlier Syriac legend that a "Man of God" of Edessa, Mesopotamia who during the episcopate of Bishop Rabula (412-435) lived by begging and shared the alms he received with other poor people was, after his death there, found to be a native of Rome. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "St. Alexius"] ]

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 vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary singled him out as a "Man of God." 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 writings 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.

St Alexius' cult developed in Syria and spread through-out the Eastern Empire by the 9th century. Only from the end of the 10th century did his name begin to appear in any liturgical books in the West.

Since before the eighth century, there was on the Aventine in Rome a church that was dedicated to St Boniface. In 972 Pope Benedict VII transferred this almost abandoned church to the exiled Greek metropolitan, Sergius of Damascus. The latter erected beside the church a monastery for Greek and Latin monks, soon made famous for the austere life of its inmates. To the name of St Boniface was now added that of St Alexius as titular saint of the church and monastery. It is evidently Sergius and his monks who brought to Rome the veneration of St Alexius. The Eastern saint, according to his legend a native of Rome, was soon very popular with the folk of that city, and this church, being associated with the legend, was considered to be built on the site of the home that Alexius returned to from Edessa.

St Alexius is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology under 17 July in the following terms: "At Rome, in a church on the Aventine Hill, a man of God is celebrated under the name of Alexius, who, as reported by tradition, abandoned his wealthy home, for the sake of becoming poor and to beg for alms unrecognized." ["Martyrologium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7] While the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St Alexius as a saint, his feast was removed from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1969, which lists the saints to be celebrated everywhere at Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Rite. The reason given was the legendary character of the written life of the saint ["Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969) page 130] The Catholic Encyclopedia article regarding St. Alexius remarked: "Perhaps the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic at Edessa lived the life of a beggar and was later venerated as a saint." [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "St. Alexius"] ] 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". [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=E7sPAAAAIAAJ Missale Romanum 1862] ] It was reduced again to the rank of "Simple" in 1955 [General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII] and in 1962 became a "Commemoration". [General Roman Calendar of 1962] 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. [ [http://www.acbc.catholic.org.au/documents/200707031933.pdf General Instruction of the Roman Missal,] 355 c]

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.

*Saint Alexis Parish and School, located in Wexford, Pennsylvania, is named for St Alexius.
*Stefano Landi wrote an opera about him (1632).
*Camilla De Rossi wrote an oratorio about him (1710).
*Rimsky Korsakov wrote a secular cantata about him.
*Alexander Radishchev in his 'Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow' (1790), refers to the story of St Alexis as sung by a blind soldier begging in Klin, near Moscow.

St Alexius is also the Patron Saint of the religious order known as the Alexians.

References

Bibliography

*Holweck, F. G., "A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints," St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1924.

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Saint Alexius"]
* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta26.htm Catholic Forum: "Saint Alexius"]
* [http://magnificat.ca/cal/engl/07-17.htm Brief "vita"] , based on "Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints," a compilation of Butler’s "Lives of the Saints",
* [http://www.stalexis.org/ "St Alexis Parish"]