ALEXIUS, Saint. - According to the oldest version of the legend, which seems to contain the authentic history of the saint, he was an anonymous Roman beggar, born of a wealthy family, who, having fled on the evening of his wedding, led a life of asceticism in Edessa, where he died under the episcopate of Rabbūlā (412-35). Neither his name nor that of his parents was known; he was simply called "man of God." In later texts he was also called: Mār Rišā (Lord Prince), because of his aristocratic origin, Gabra Krestos (servant of Christ), Ἀλέξιος, "Ἀλέξις," for some unknown reason, among the Byzantines, whence our Alexius.
The life of this saint, now known principally under the name of A., is known from a Syriac legend, composed between 450 and 475, of which a manuscript dates to the beginning of the 6th century. The story of the "man of God" is there told on the testimony of the depositions of the sacristan of the church frequented by the anonymous beggar. The narrative ends with the death of the saint, which occurred in Edessa, and the visit to the tomb, found empty, by Bishop Rabbūlā. The account presents such characteristics as to make it be considered, on the whole, authentic. Everything that later accounts added to the primitive version, not excluding the very well-known episode of A.'s remaining for 17 years in a stairway closet of his father's house, must be considered a legendary element.
Among these later legends, which exercised a broad influence on Alexian hagiographic and literary production, the following should be mentioned: 1) the Byzantine one, whose text has not yet been located, which was used by Joseph the Hymnographer (Acta SS. Iulii, IV, pp. 247-48), of the second half of the 9th century, and by the Byzantine Menologia (cf., for example, the anonymous Byzantine Menologion of the 10th century, ed. by B. Latyšev, St. Petersburg 1911, pp. 243-52); 2) a second Syriac legend of the 9th century; 3) the Western one, in Greek and in Latin, in various recensions, of which the oldest (BHL, 289, edited by L. Vázquez de Parga, Madrid 1941: Anal. Bollandiana, 62 [1944], pp. 281-83) dates to the first half of the 10th century and deals with the anonymous Filius Famiani. The other recensions were composed, it seems, adapting them to the topography of the Aventine, in the Greek-Latin monastery called to new life by Sergius, archbishop of Damascus, who had taken refuge in Rome in 977. It should be noted that the Byzantine legend has much affinity with the no less fabulous one of St. John Calybita (v.). Recently Léon Hermann (in L'Antiquité classique, 11 [1942] pp. 235-41) believed he had proved that the source of the Roman legend of A. is a lost biography of the poet Commodian and that this poet is the prototype of A. and of Calybita (cf. observations of F. Tailliez, in Orientalia Chr. Per., 1945, pp. 216-22).
The cult of A., quite widespread in the East, passed to the West in the course of the 10th century (from Spain come the first known manuscripts, 10th century, of the oldest Western recension of the legend: BHL, 289); it was brought to Rome by Archbishop Sergius. This cult then spread throughout all Europe, both because of the fame that the monastery of the Aventine immediately acquired, and because of the fascination that the pathetic legend of A. exercised on the people. In the East the feast is celebrated on 17 March; in the West on 17 July.
Diffusion of the legend of St. A. - The legend of A., which Gregorovius (Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, I, ed. Schillmann, Dresden 1926, pp. 781-82) considered "one of the most beautiful of Christian self-denial," had an extraordinary diffusion and great popularity. It was known to Arab, Ethiopian and Slavic Christians - in Russia the name of A. is very widespread - through the Syriac and Byzantine legends; medieval Europe sang it and staged it, drawing both on the Western legend and on the Byzantine and perhaps also the Syriac. Among the best-known literary compositions we recall: La vie de saint Alexis (ed. G. Paris, Paris 1903), a poem of the 11th century; the Ritmo di s. A. of which mention is made in folklore; the well-known poem of Conrad of Würzburg, d. in 1287 (ed. P. Gereke, Halle 1925-1927); the Vita b. Alexii, of Bonvesin da la Riva, who died ca. 1313-15 (ed. E. Monaci, Città di Castello 1912), etc. The regions of Italy richest in popular compositions inspired by the legend of A. are: the Marches, Romagna, Emilia, Piedmont. There are also various compositions written for the theater: among modern ones we recall those of Cardinal Wiseman (1859) and of Henri Ghéon (1920). In the musical field, particular mention is due to the S. A., of Stefano Landi (v.), with Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi (later Clement IX) as librettist, performed in Rome, with brilliant success, in 1632 and, with some modifications, in 1634 (cf. R. Rolland, Le Journal de J.-J. Bouchard, in Revue Musicale, 1902) and the Leggenda di s. Fabiano (see below), written by A. Beltramelli (cf. Il secolo XX, 25 [1926], pp. 829-37), set to music by Pratella and performed in Bologna in 1939.
Church and monastery. - The first titular of the Church was St. Boniface, and its origin dates to the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the next. The text of the Liber Pontificalis (biography of Sixtus III, 432-40), according to which the basilica of S. Sabina was erected "iuxta monasterium S. Bonifacii, in quo et s. Alexius iacet," is an interpolation of the 12th century. The church of S. Bonifacio appears among the deaconries of the beginning of the 9th century; in 977 it was ceded by Benedict VII to Archbishop Sergius, who restored monastic life there. Toward the end of the 10th century the name of A. was added to that of Boniface, and soon prevailed over the latter. The church was rebuilt in the 12th century, restored in 1582, completely transformed in 1750, and again restored and decorated between 1852 and 1860. Since 1587 it has been a cardinalitial title.
The monastery must have existed when the church was a deaconry, but its celebrity dates to the time of Sergius (d.
in 981); elevated to the dignity of abbey, it became the fourth among the twenty privileged ones, and a center of missionaries for north-eastern Europe. In 1231 it passed from the Benedictines to the Canons Regular Premonstratensians; in 1426 to the Hieronymites; in 1848 to the Somaschi. Since 1940 it has become the seat of the Istituto di Studi Romani.
Bibliography14 works
ALEXIUS IN SACRED ART
He is generally represented as a pilgrim, sometimes with the autobiographical letter of tradition in his hand. The most characteristic attribute is provided by the legendary staircase under which he lived for seventeen years, unknown, in his father's house, as in the elaborate monument by Andrea Bagordi in the saint's basilica in Rome (stucco, mid-18th century). Among the cyclic depictions of the legend, those discovered in the lower basilica of St. Clement in Rome are the oldest (11th century).
Bibliography3 works
Kurt Rathe
ALEXIUS IN POPULAR POETRY
The popular cult of St. Alexis is attested above all by a narrative song in hendecasyllables, perhaps originating in central Italy, whose area of diffusion extends from Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia as far as Calabria and Apulia in numerous versions, some of which, of high poetic value, are among the finest examples of Italian popular poetry. In the Romagnol versions the protagonist is called St. Fabian, confusion having arisen with the name of the saint's father, Euphemian, and, by corruption, Fabian.
Besides this narrative song, which still survives in the oral tradition of the various dialects of Italy, there are ancient poems of popular tone: the famous Ritmo di s. A., in monorhymed laisses, held to be the work of a Marchigian jongleur, from the early thirteenth century and perhaps even of an earlier period, published by E. Monaci, to whom it was pointed out by the priest V. Paoletti of Amandola (Reud. R. Acc. d. Lincei, Classe Scienze Morali St. e Fil., 5th series, 16 [1907], pp. 103-32); a short poem in 73 octaves that already appears in an incunabulum of the Casanatense library; another, also in octaves, from the sixteenth century, both reprinted several times down to our own day in popular booklets adorned with crude woodcuts, besides various reworkings of lesser interest.
The legend has also been treated in dramatic form. Sanudo in his diaries recalls a performance of St. Alexis given in the monastery of S. Salvatore in Venice on 13 February 1515; noteworthy are a sacra rappresentazione in octaves (1st known ed. 1517) and a maggio of the Tuscan countryside (ed. Sborgi, Volterra 1867).
Bibliography4 works
Paolo Toschi