ALESSANDRO, patriarch of ALEXANDRIA, saint. — He occupied the see from 312 to 326. When Arius, a member of his Church, began to spread his doctrines concerning the Word among the Alexandrian clergy and monks, he immediately perceived their opposition to the traditional faith and sought to correct him by persuasive and conciliatory means. When these means proved fruitless, around 320 he convened a council, attended by about a hundred bishops from Egypt and Libya, at which Arius and his supporters were solemnly condemned. Since Arius sought refuge and protection with other bishops, A. addressed numerous letters to them to put them on their guard. Of some seventy letters, which included an initial collection, only two have reached us, through Socrates (Hist. eccl., I, 6) and Theodoret (Hist. eccl., I, 4); they are highly important for the history of the beginnings of the Arian heresy. When Arius persisted in propagating his ideas, A. sought the intervention of Pope Silvester, who sent Hosius to the East. Constantine himself wrote A. a letter in an attempt to settle the dispute, for which he held both him and Arius equally responsible (Eusebius, Vita Constantini, II, 64-72; PG 20, 1038-47). All was in vain. The Council of Nicaea followed, at which A. held a prominent position and played a leading role, assisted by Athanasius, his deacon. He returned to his see, bearing a letter of commendation from the Fathers of the Council and confirmed in his patriarchal rights over the churches of Egypt, Libya, and the Pentapolis. Urged by Eusebius of Nicomedia and by Constantine himself to receive Arius back, he refused firmly. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 26 February, as a result of an erroneous identification by Florus; the Greeks venerate him on 29 May.
BBL.: Lettere e Sermoni in PG 18, 547-614: the letters were republished by H. G. Opitz in the new ed. of the works of s. Atanasio, III, 1, Berlin 1934. — O. Bardenhewer, Gesch. der olthirehl. Liter., III, Freiburg im Br. 1923, pp. 34-41; Martyr. Romanum, p. 78; G. Bard, in Storia della Chiesa, directed by A. Fliche and V. Martin, IV, Italian version by P. Frutza, Turin (1940), p. 73 ff. Gaetano Corti