The hagiography of Saint Alexius sets his life of abnegation in the early 5th century. In the earliest Syriac legend, the Saint, the "Man of God" of Edessa was Alexius, a native of Rome, who lived in Edessa during the episcopate of Bishop Rabula (412-435). His cult developed in Syria and spread first through the Eastern Empire by the 9th century. Hagiography is the study of saints. ... ( 4th century - 5th century - 6th century - other centuries) Events Rome sacked by Visigoths in 410. ...

As the Latin versions of his legend expanded the story, Alexius was the only son of Euphemianus, a wealthy Christian Roman of the senatorial class, Alexius fled his arranged marriage to follow his holy vocation. Disguised as a beggar, he lived near Edessa in Syria, accepting alms even from his own household slaves, who had been sent to look for him but did not recognize him, until a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary singled him out as a "Man of God". Fleeing the resultant notoriety, he returned to Rome, so changed that his parents did not recognize him, but as good Christians took him in and sheltered him for seventeen years, which he spent in a dark cubbyhole beneath the stairs, praying and teaching catechism to children. After his death, his family found writings on his body which told them who he was and how he had lived his life of penance from the day of his wedding, for the love of God. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The term Virgin Mary has several different meanings: For the historical and multi-denominational concept of Mary, see Mary, the mother of Jesus. ...

His father's house was converted into the church of Saint Alexius on the Aventine in Rome, documented in connection with St. Boniface not before the 10th century. The cult of Sant'Alessio was brought to Rome by the exiled Greek metropolitan, Sergius of Damascus. He is venerated July 17 in the Roman calendar. The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills that ancient Rome was built on. ... (Latin veneratio, Greek δουλια dulia) In traditional Christian churches (for example, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy), veneration, or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a dead person who has been identified as singular in the traditions of the religion, and through them honoring God who made them and... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 167 days remaining. ...

Numerous Byzantine and Russian personalities have born his name: see Alexius. In Italy the version Alessio is more common. There have been several people named Alexius Alexius I Comnenus (1048_1118), Byzantine emperor Alexius II Comnenus (1167_1183), Byzantine emperor Alexius III, Byzantine emperor Alexius IV, Byzantine emperor Alexius V, Byzantine emperor Alexius Mikhailovich (1629_1676), tsar of Russia Alexius Petrovich (1690_1718), Russian tsarevich Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow, (1354-1378) Patriarch Alexius...

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm) Saint Alexius
• Saint Alexius (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta26.htm)
• Brief vita (http://magnificat.ca/cal/engl/07-17.htm), based on Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation of Butler’s Lives of the Saints,