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The hagiography of Saint Alexius sets his life of abnegation in the early 5th century. In the earliest Syriac legend, the Saint, the "Man of God" of Edessa was Alexius, a native of Rome, who lived in Edessa during the episcopate of Bishop Rabula (412-435). His cult developed in Syria and spread first through the Eastern Empire by the 9th century.
As the Latin versions of his legend expanded the story, Alexius was 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 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.
His father's house was converted into the church of Saint Alexius on the Aventine in Rome, documented in connection with St. Boniface not before the 10th century. The cult of Sant'Alessio was brought to Rome by the exiled Greek metropolitan, Sergius of Damascus. He is venerated July 17 in the Roman calendar.
Numerous Byzantine and Russian personalities have born his name: see Alexius. In Italy the version Alessio is more common.
External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm) Saint Alexius
- Saint Alexius (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta26.htm)
- Brief vita (http://magnificat.ca/cal/engl/07-17.htm), based on Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation of Butlers Lives of the Saints,
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