Saint Alexis of Rome

We do not believe that there is in ecclesiastical history an example of renunciation as absolute, as painful to nature as that of Alexis. Thi s sain Alexis Roman saint celebrated for his absolute renunciation and life as an incognito beggar. t was born in Rome, after the middle of the 4th century. His father, name d Euphemi Euphémien Father of Saint Alexis, influential member of the Roman Senate. an, was one of the principal members of the senate; and his mothe r, cal Aglaïs Mother of Saint Alexis, a Roman noblewoman. led Aglais, was a lady of great merit whose nobility matched that of her husband. Their possessions were so great that they had no fewer than three thousand slaves, some of whom served them in the city, and others were in their country houses, to cultivate the estates they possessed there. As God gave them no children, they shared much of their wealth with all kinds of unfortunate people: three tables were set every day in their mansion, where widows and orphans, pilgrims and the poor, and finally the sick were treated liberally. Foreign religious were also very well received by this illustrious patrician; but he usually had them eat at his table, which forced him to defer his dinner until the hour of None, which was the hour for the religious to eat; and if it happened that he relaxed in his mercy toward the poor, he would prostrate himself face to the ground, and say to God with a sigh: "I am not worthy, my sovereign Lord, to be borne upon the earth that You have created."

Meanwhile Aglais, to whom her sterility caused much sorrow, prayed earnestly to the Author of all goods to give her a son who would be the consolation of her husband and the support of her family in the time of their old age. Her prayers, accompanied by so many alms, were finally answered: she brought into the world a child to whom Euphemian had the name Alexis given at baptism. When he was of an age to study, he was made to learn grammar, rhetoric, and history; he became a good orator and very learned in the things of antiquity. He spent his childhood and the first years of his youth in the study common to children of his station; and, as he was under the discipline of a father and mother who made religion their primary concern, he was formed at the same time in virtue and in all the exercises of Christian piety. Thus, he promised to be, in a short time, one of the principal ornaments of the empire, and eyes were already cast upon him as upon a young man who was about to enter into the first offices of the State. His father and mother thought of finding him a good match, and indeed married him to a very wealthy girl, who was from an imperial family. The ceremony took place in the church of Saint Boniface: then followed splendid feasts and banquets. But Alexis, to whom God gave much higher thoughts, and who had consented to his marriage only out of deep respect for all that his father and mother wished of him, far from being charmed by the graces of his spouse, or taking pleasure in all the entertainments of the nuptial feast, sighed continually in the depths of his heart for a solitude where he could live detached from the world, and occupied with the knowledge and love of God alone. While this thought filled his mind, God inspired him to leave his father's house that very evening, and all the attractions he found there, and to go on a pilgrimage to the most famous places of devotion in the East. He enters his spouse's chamber, and gives her a ring and a belt wrapped in scarlet taffeta, saying to her: "Keep, I pray you, this gift, and God will be between you and me until His will is accomplished." Then he goes into his own study, takes money and precious stones, and, having left the dwelling secretly, without anyone noticing, he goes to the port, boards a ship, and sets sail for Laodicea. From there, having himself led by horse, he goes to Edessa, a city of Mesopotamia, where that sacred image of Our Lord was, which had not been made by the hand of men, but which He Himself had sent during His mortal life to Prince Abgar, as Eusebius of Caesarea asserts in his History. When he had arrive Édesse Birthplace of Saint Simeon in Syria. d there, he sold what jewels he had, an d gave the price to the poor w image sacrée de Notre-Seigneur Image of Christ not made by human hands sent to Prince Abgar. ith the rest of the money he had brought: reduced himself to extreme necessity, he lived only on alms. The place where he was usually found was the porch of the church of Our Lady, where he occupied himself unceasingly in praying to God, in meditating on the mysteries of our religion, and in contemplating the greatness and perfections of the Divinity. He had no greater joy than to see himself rejected by the world, and looked upon as a man of nothing, a beggar. He was always poorly dressed in the manner of the poor. His fasts and vigils were continuous: he took very little food and gave to others the alms he received.

However, his father, his mother, and his bride, whom he had left without saying goodbye, were extremely surprised to no longer see him, especially when, after waiting and searching for a few days in Rome and its surroundings, they learned no news of him. They sent their servants as soon as possible to almost every part of the world to inquire about what had become of him, and there were even some who followed him so closely that they met him in Edessa, where he had retreated. He recognized them, asked them for alms, and received it from their hands, blessing Our Lord for this humiliation; but they did not recognize him, because his abstinences, his tears, and his neglected state made him unrecognizable. Thus they were forced, like all the others, to return to Rome without having learned anything. Who could paint what were, on this occasion, the sorrow and the groans of the father, the mother, and the bride of our Saint? "What have I done to you, Alexis?" said this father in the bitterness of his heart, "what have I done to you, my son, to have thus abandoned me and thrown me into the deepest excess of sadness? Have I acted toward you like those barbarian fathers who have only rigor and hardness for their children? Have I not been the best of fathers to you? Was everything I have not yours, and did all my cares not tend to enlarge your house and make you one of the most glorious and richest lords of the empire? Did I choose you an unworthy bride? Is it not the most advantageous match that was in Rome, and a girl with whom you could live in innocent joy and who would never have wounded your conscience? Why then have you left me at a time when you were receiving the greatest testimonies of my paternal love? But there is undoubtedly a hidden mystery in your retreat: for you are too good a son to have wanted to give the slightest dissatisfaction to your father."

His mother lived alone, shut up in her room, where she barely let a little light penetrate; she slept on ashes and sighed incessantly toward heaven; she said: "Why, Lord, did you give him to me only to take him away at a time when I should have received more satisfaction and joy from him? If he were dead, I would console myself, because I would have hope that he would enjoy your divine presence; but that he is alive and that I am deprived of him, and that others enjoy the happiness of his sight and his conversation, that is what causes my greatest pain. Is it possible, Alexis," she added, "that your bowels were of iron and bronze toward me, and that you had no pity for a mother who desired you with such ardor, who raised you with such care, and who loved you more than any mother has ever loved her children? But a higher cause must have carried you away: for you had too much tenderness to bring upon me, of your own accord, the pain and affliction in which I am plunged." Finally, the new bride, who never wanted to abandon her mother-in-law, nor accept another husband, complained more than any other, accusing herself of being the cause of her Alexis's departure. "If it is not for me," she said, "that you absented yourself, why did you wait, to do so, until the evening of our wedding? Why did you not do it sooner? But, since you only did it at the moment of our conjugal union, it is clear that it is because I was not worthy of you. Why did you not say so freely, and why did you make me the cause of the desolation of your family? But, however unworthy I may be of possessing you, I will keep an inviolable faith to you all my life, and I will spend it in tears, like a forsaken turtledove." Such were the complaints of this desolate family.

As for Saint Alexis, when he had spent seventeen years under the porch of the church of Our Lady, the image of that glorious Mother of God spoke to the treasurer of the temple, and told him that he ought to greatly regard the poor man he saw so often at her door, and even give him an honest lodging within, because he was pleasing to God; that the Holy Spirit rested upon him, and that his prayers were highly regarded in heaven. This revelation having become known, reflection was made upon the humility of this beggar, his patience, his silence, his assiduity in prayer, his charity towards other poor people, and all sorts of other virtues of which he gave great examples at every moment: they began to honor him and to look upon him as a Saint; the treasurer no longer wished for him to remain in that vestibule, but provided him with an apartment in the church: everyone vied to provide him with the necessities of life.

These favors, which would have detained any other person in that place, compelled Alexis to withdraw from it: as he had only left his parents' house to flee honor and deprive himself of the comforts of life, he could not remain in a place where they no longer wanted him to lack anything, and where his humility was no longer safe. He therefore departed from Edessa, and embarked at Laodicea, with the intention of going to Tarsus, to the church of Saint Paul, where he hoped to be no less unknown than he had been for seventeen years in his first retreat. But a furious storm tossed his vessel for a long time: which caused him to travel an almost incredible distance; he finally arrived, by the guidance of God, in Italy, and at the city of Rome, which was to be the most glorious theater of his struggles and his victories. Then he felt himself strongly moved by the Holy Spirit to stay in his parents' house, while remaining unknown, in order to combat more closely his dearest sentiments, and to resist the most moving spectacle.

This was truly a most extraordinary conduct, and more admirable than imitable, since, according to the common ways, it is not permitted to expose oneself to temptations and dangers, and one must flee what one should not love; but the Spirit of God had prepared him for it by a perfect death to himself, and by such a great detachment from all that is created, that he had become as if insensible to it. Thus, after having visited the tombs of the Apostles and the other holy places of the city, where he implored the help of heaven for his design, he placed himself in his father's path and said to him: "I beseech you, servant of God, to exercise your charity toward me, I who am a poor man destitute of all help; give me, if you please, a shelter in some corner of your house, and suffer me to live there, with your servants, on the crumbs that fall from your table: I shall not be a burden to you at all, and God, who rewards the merciful, will pour his blessings upon you; and if any of yours are absent and on a journey, he will cause you to see them again in good health." At these words, Euphemian remembered his son, whom he believed to be very far away; and, touched by a movement of charity, he led the poor man to his mansion and had a small place given to him to retire. He also commanded one of his slaves to take care of him, promising him for this his freedom and the means to live freely.

The life of our Saint, in this small retreat, was admirable: he continued to afflict his body there by fasts and continual vigils; he ate almost nothing, and two ounces of water a day made up all his drink; his life was to pray and to weep; he spent the days and nights adoring God and contemplating his goodness; he only went out to go to the church, and the slave to whom he had been entrusted testified, after his death, that he never failed to receive communion every Sunday. His patience was at every moment put to the test by the numerous slaves of his father. Some gave him slaps and kicks, others tore at his beard and hair, these threw dishwater on his head, those subjected him to even more sensitive outrages, which God permitted, to consume more and more the virtue of his servant: and in fact, none of this could shake his courage, nor make him lose the calm and serenity he enjoyed in the depths of his soul; he rejoiced, on the contrary, to be treated in his own home by his own slaves with more inhumanity than he would have been in the state of the cruelest servitude, and he offered himself every day to God to bear greater opprobrium and harsher and more sensitive humiliations for His love and for His glory.

But what exercised his patience the most was the continuous sight of his father, his mother, and his wife. He knew that the length of time had not yet appeased their sorrow; that they were still suffering great pain from his supposed absence; that they often wept for it very bitterly, perhaps even spoke to him of it sometimes. Moreover, the study of perfection, far from having extinguished in him natural love, had on the contrary greatly increased it; if he had formerly loved his parents and her whom God had given him as a wife, he loved them then much more perfectly. What strength of mind and what greatness of soul did he not need to remain silent in the face of his servants who insulted him, of his parents who wept for him, of his house, and of his riches which invited him to enjoy them!

Simeon Metaphrastes, reported by Surius, does not say how long such a difficult trial lasted; but Peter de Natalibus, the Roman Martyrology, and the lessons of this day, say that it lasted for Simeon Métaphraste Byzantine hagiographer, author of the Acts of the Saints. seventeen years.

Thus, our Saint spent thirty-four years in this struggle against himself, which required a heroic effort at every moment. But finally, God, wishing to glorify His servant in this world and the next, let him know that the hour of his death was approaching and ordered him to put into writing who he was, and what he had done since his flight. He therefore asked the servant who came to see him to bring him something to write with; obeying the voice of God, he clearly marked on the paper the particulars of his birth, his education, and his marriage, with the circumstances of his departure and the places where he had been, and folded this note so that it would be seen only after his death. Meanwhile, on a S unday, Pope Innoc pape Innocent Ier Pope who received Victricius in Rome and author of a decretal. ent I was celebrating Mass in the church of Saint Peter, in the pres ence of Emperor H empereur Honorius Western Roman Emperor who abolished the gladiatorial games after the death of Telemachus. onorius and a large number of ecclesiastics and lords; a voice was heard from the middle of the sanctuary, saying: "Come to me, all you who are in pain and burdened, and I will refresh you." Everyone, at this word, was seized with admiration and fear, and, prostrating themselves face to the ground, cried out: "Lord, have mercy on us!" Immediately a second voice was heard coming from the altar, which said: "Seek the man of God; he will pray for Rome, and the Lord will be favorable to him; furthermore, he must die next Friday." They therefore began to search for the one whom this voice had marked, but they could not find him, nor learn anything about him. That is why, the following Friday, a considerable crowd gathered in the same church, and the Pope himself with the Emperor were there. Then the same voice was heard, and it declared that it was in the house of Euphemian that this great treasure must be sought.

Euphemian was present with the Emperor, as one of the most considerable lords of Rome. Honorius therefore turned to him and said: "How do you hide in your house a man so cherished by heaven?" — "I have no knowledge of it," said Euphemian; "however, we must go and see who he is." Thus, he went ahead, in order to prepare everything to receive the Pope and the Emperor. While things were happening in this way in the church, Saint Alexis, having placed his paper in his hand, lay down gently on his poor bed, and, having his heart all ablaze with love and the desire to possess his sovereign good, he fell asleep peacefully in Our Lord, and the angels carried his soul into heaven, to receive there the reward for his humility, his stripping away of all things, and his voluntary sufferings.

Euphemian, having arrived at his dwelling, asked if anything new had happened there, and if there was any appearance that this admirable man whom heaven had announced three times was hidden there. The servant to whom he had given charge of our Saint told him that his poor man had just died, and that he had no doubt that it was he of whom the angel of heaven had spoken, because he had led a very exemplary life for seventeen years; and that, even though the servants heaped a thousand outrages upon him, he had maintained himself in incomparable patience and gentleness, without ever complaining of the ill-treatment he received. Euphemian wanted to see him, and went to his little cell which was under a staircase. Finding him lying down, and his face covered with his sackcloth, he called him several times; but he received no answer and heard no movement. He lifted the sackcloth that covered him and perceived, on one side his face all radiant and casting rays of light, and on the other, his hand clenched and holding a folded paper. Joy, astonishment, respect, and fear seized him at the same time; he wanted to take the paper to read it before the arrival of the Pope and the prince; but he could not pull it from his hand. He went to meet His Holiness and His Imperial Majesty, and told them what he had just discovered. They ordered that the body be transported, with much reverence, into a secret room, and that it be laid in the middle on a bed; then they knelt before him, and prayed to him earnestly not to make any difficulty about letting go of the paper he held in his hand, so that his merit might be known and what God wished to teach the empire through him. He let it go immediately, and, by order of the Pope, Aetius, chancellor of the holy Church, took it to read it publicly. A great silence then fell, everyone wishing to know who such an extraordinary man was; but when they learned that it was Alexis, who, on the first night of his wedding, had given a ring and a belt to his spouse in a scarlet taffeta and had then gone away to be poor and a pilgrim in the world all his life, it was no longer possible for Euphemian to stop the transports of his grief. The presence of the Pontiff and the Emperor did not prevent him from tearing his hair, heaving great sighs, leaning over the body of the dead man, and bathing it with his tears. One heard him cry out, in the violence of his pain: "Ah! miserable me, to lose my son just at the moment I find him! And why, Alexis, did you not reveal yourself to me sooner? Why did you not appease my sadness by declaring to me who you were? It was a living son I was asking for, and not a dead son! I wished for you to leave you heir to my goods, and not to put you in the ground. What use is it to me to have recovered you, if I must be deprived of you eternally by hiding you in the sepulcher? Was it not better to leave me in the pain, which was accompanied by some hope, than to take away all hope from me by pulling me out of my anxiety?"

The mother of our Saint, who was not in the room, was not long in learning what was happening. She rushed there hurriedly, tearing her clothes and shedding torrents of tears. She had difficulty passing through the crowd, but she broke through the press, saying: "Let me see my hope, let me embrace the object of my desires and the subject of my sorrow: allow me to water with my tears him whom I have mourned as absent for so many years." Having approached the holy body, she pressed her face against his without being able to separate herself from it; sometimes complaining to him that he had left her and that upon his return he had not made himself known; sometimes complaining of herself that she had not recognized him whom she possessed and who was before her eyes; sometimes lamenting her misfortune in losing her only son at the moment she found him.

The wife of the Servant of God was no more moderate: "Is it possible, my lord," she said to him while embracing him, "that conjugal love did not solicit and press your heart? Is it possible that you saw me for seventeen years without desiring me for a single moment? That the riches and honors of your house did not touch you, I am not surprised; but that your desolate wife, whom you saw every day, did not soften your heart, is what passes all imagination. I must therefore begin to be a widow upon finding you, after having been a widow for so many years while desiring you."

These passionate movements made known more and more to those present the inestimable virtue of Alexis, who had been able to sustain, for seventeen years, tenderness capable of softening hearts of iron and steel. When some concession had been made to the grief of these holy women, the Pope and the Emperor ordered that as soon as possible the bed where the holy body lay should be placed in a more exposed place, to show it to everyone. But the crowd was so great that it was long impossible to move it. It is that he began from then on to perform great miracles, and that by merely seeing him, one received the healing of the maladies with which one was afflicted. Finally, it was decided that he would be carried solemnly to the earth. Metaphrastes says that it was in the church of Saint Peter; but the Roman Martyrology, Mombritius, Peter de Natalibus, and after them, Baronius, inform us that it was in the church of Saint Boniface, which was the one where he had been married.

One can reconcile these two sentiments by saying that he was first carried to the church of Saint Peter, where great honors were rendered to him, and that afterwards he was transported to that of Saint Boniface, which was to be the place of his rest. The Pope and the Emperor attended this ceremony and even placed their hands on the coffin out of respect. The father and mother of the Saint were seven days without being able to separate themselves from his relics. A magnificent tomb was immediately made, enriched with gold and precious stones, where he was deposited. Miracles continued to occur there in great numbers. There issued from his sepulcher a marvelous oil, according to Metaphrastes, and a very pleasant odor, according to Bishop Equilin, which restored health to the sick. Baronius, in the year 4004, marks a miracle of Saint Boniface and Saint Alexis, in favor of a religious man prey to a pestilential malady. The house of Euphemian, which was on the Aventine Hill, where, du ring paganis mont Aventin Hill in Rome where the house of Euphemianus was located. m, one saw the temple of Hercules the Victor, was subsequently changed into a church under the name of Saint Alexis. One still shows there some steps of the staircase under which this admirable Saint lived for seventeen years, with an image of the Virgin, which is said to be the one that spoke in his favor to the treasurer of the church of Edessa.

The Roman Martyrology and Breviary place his death on July 17. One formerly only made a memory of it; but Pope Urban VIII permitted the celebration of the semi-double office. Metaphrastes, who speaks of him on March 17, intends to speak of the day when the holy body was placed in the new sepulcher. The year of this death is not entirely certain. It was not in the 4th century, as Equilin says, in which Innocent was not yet Pope; but at the beginning of the 5th.

He is represented holding between his hands, after his death, a writing that caused him to be recognized. — The Venetian Legendary represents him lying under a staircase of the paternal house, where he spent his last years as an unknown pauper. — He is sometimes represented with a pilgrim's cloak, a staff, and a hat adorned with a scallop shell.

Cf. Acta Sanctorum.