ALESSANDRO, patriarch of ANTIOCH. — He had spent his life practicing monastic virtues and every kind of austerity when, in 313, he succeeded Porphyry as patriarch of Antioch. With his holiness of life strengthened by effective eloquence, he succeeded in reconciling the Eustathians, who had already separated from the other Catholics in 330. A. was the first to restore the name of s. Giovanni Crisostomo to the diptychs: he communicated this joyful news to Innocent I and asked for his communion. The Pope replied with one letter signed by himself and 20 bishops, and another, entirely cordial, from himself alone.
BBL.: Nicephorus: PG, 146, 1135; F. Cavallera, Le schisme d'Antioche, Parigi 1905; id., in Bull. de litt. eccl. p. par l'init. cath. de Toulouse, 1906, pp. 120-25. The letters are in PL 20, 19-24, 540-551; Tillemont, X, pp. 642 sgg.; 831 sgg.; Bar Ebreo, Chron. eccl., ed. J. B. Abeloos e T. Lamy, I, Lovanio 1872, coll. 137-39. Pietro Sfair