ALEXANDER, bishop of Constantinople, saint.
Consecrated bishop of Byzantium between 313 and 317, died in 336. He was a defender of orthodoxy against the heresy of Arius. Forced by Constantine to receive Arius into the Church when he still showed no signs of penitence, he earnestly prayed for God’s judgment. On the very morning when he was to go to the church, Arius suddenly died in the latrine. A. was the first bishop of the new Constantinople. His feast is celebrated by the Latins on August 28, and by the Byzantines on the 31st.
ALEXANDER, bishop and patron of Fiesole, martyr.
On his return from Pavia, where he had gone to the Emperor Lothair (associated in the empire in 817, d. 855), he was cast into the Rhine by the agents of the enemies of his Church. The year of his death is unknown; the Bollandists favor 823. According to the custom of the time he was venerated as a martyr. His feast is celebrated on June 6.