S. Alexii Confessoris" refers to **Saint Alexius of Rome

"S. Alexii Confessoris" refers to **Saint Alexius of Rome**, who was a confessor.

He was born in Rome in the fourth century and was the only son of parents who were pre-eminent among the Roman nobles for both their virtue and their great wealth.

Although this fourth-century saint had become popular very early among the eastern Christians, in Western Europe St Alexius was the recipient of a wave of devotion only in the ninth and tenth century. From the ninth century onwards, different versions of his life spread in diverse religious communities from Spain to England.

Around 1040 his Vita was even translated into vernacular Old French language, known as Chanson de saint Alexis. The expansion of the cult of St Alexius seems most obviously to have been due to the activities of popes in the tenth century.

In 977, Sergios, an exiled bishop from Damascus, arrived in Rome. It is likely that he brought with him the legend and the veneration to St Alexius. Having received the church of St Boniface on the Aventine from Pope Benedict VII, Sergios created a monastery there. The second abbot of the monastery, Leon, then erected a church of St Alexius in 986. Since then, the saint became a second patron of the city.

The legend of St Alexius thus became a text of Roman and papal propaganda that depicted the saint as a Roman, who was born, died and was buried in Rome, and his relics stemming from Saint-Boniface were Roman too. Therefore, Rome was one of the main forces disseminating St Alexius’s cult.

Saint Alexius of Rome, also known as Alexius of Edessa, was a fourth-century Greek monk who lived in anonymity and is known for his dedication to Christ¹. He was born into a wealthy Christian family in Rome, the only son of a respected Roman senator⁵. From an early age, Alexius felt called to devote himself entirely to God, seeking a life of holiness and service.

Two versions of his life exist, one in Syriac and the other in Greek. According to the Syriac tradition, St. Alexius was an Eastern saint whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome. The relocation of the veneration to Rome was facilitated by the belief that the saint was a native of Rome and had died there. This Roman connection stemmed from an earlier Syriac legend, which recounted that, during the episcopate of Bishop Rabbula (412–435), a "Man of God", who lived in Edessa, Mesopotamia as a beggar and shared the alms he received with other poor people, was found to be a native of Rome after his death.

The Greek version of his legend made Alexius the only son of Euphemianus, a wealthy Christian Roman of the senatorial class¹. 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; they did not recognize him until a miraculous icon of the Blessed 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 a note 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.

The life of St Alexius is also recounted in a French poem, la Vie de saint Alexis, believed to date from the early or mid-11th century. This is regarded as one of the earliest works of French literature, and also one of the first poems in any romance language to be written in the 10 or 11-syllable iambic line which later became the iambic pentameter.

(1) Alexius of Rome - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexius_of_Rome.

(2) Saint Alexius of Rome - Catholic Saint | Saint for a Minute: Blesseds .... https://www.saintforaminute.com/saints/saint_alexius_of_rome.

(3) Saint Alexis | Biography & Feast Day | Britannica. https://bing.com/search?q=Life+of+Saint+Alexius.

(4) Saint Alexis | Biography & Feast Day | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Alexis.

(5) Venerable Alexis the Man of God - Orthodox Church in America. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2022/03/17/100822-venerable-alexis-the-man-of-god.

(6) Saint Alexius of Rome, Confessor - sanctoral.com. https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_alexius_of_rome.html.

(7) The cult of St Alexius: a new veneration of an old saint and Italian .... https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/after-empire/2018/05/15/the-cult-of-st-alexius/.

(8) The Daily Mass: St Osmund of Salisbury - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgSyzQB8azM.