Alexius, St

Alexius, St., was born at Rome about A.D. 350, and compelled by his parents to marry a lady of high rank, but escaping from her on the wedding evening, he spent the night in the porch of the Church of Our Lady of Edessa, where he lived on the charity of others for seventeen years. Having embarked for Tarsus, he was driven by contrary winds to Rome, and, unrecognised, took up his abode in a corner of his father's house. After his death a paper was found in his hand, on which were written his Naomi and that of his family, and an account of his marriage, etc. The Romans celebrate his memory on July 17, and the Greeks on March 17. He is probably a mythical person, and his history should, without doubt, be applied to St. John Calybites. It may be that the Greeks gave him the sobriquet of Alexius (healer) because of the many miraculous cures attributed to him. See Baillet, July 17.