Alexius of Rome

Who they were

Alexius was, according to recent research, an Eastern saint - the 'Man of God' of Edessa - whose veneration and legend passed from the Byzantine world to Rome and spread through the West. The Greek legend makes him the son of a Roman nobleman, Euphemianus, who on his wedding night secretly left home for Edessa and lived there seventeen years as an ascetic.

As his holiness became known he returned to Rome and lived seventeen more years as a beggar under the stairs of his father's house, unrecognised by his father or his wife. After his death, placed in 417, a document found on his body revealed who he was.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Alexius has been honoured as a saint since the early Middle Ages. His story is a legend, not a history.

Why that counted as sanctity

The legend of Alexius honours total self-renunciation for God: a man who gave up wealth, marriage and even his name to live as a poor stranger in his own home.