Wacky Saint Alexis

So, whatever became of the poor wife he jilted?  What a putz!

July 17:  Saint Alexis

Saint Alexius or Alexis of Rome or Alexis of Edessa was an Eastern saint whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome.

The Greek version of his legend made Alexius 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 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 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.

St Alexius' cult developed in Syria and spread throughout the Eastern Roman Empire by the 9th century. Only from the end of the 10th century did his name begin to appear in any liturgical books in the West.

St Alexius is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology under 17 July in the following terms: "At Rome, in a church on the Aventine Hill, a man of God is celebrated under the name of Alexius, who, as reported by tradition, abandoned his wealthy home, for the sake of becoming poor and to beg for alms unrecognized.

Saint Alexis Parish and School, located in Wexford, Pennsylvania, is named for St Alexius.

Stefano Landi wrote an opera about him (1632).

Camilla de Rossi wrote an oratorio about him (1710).

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a secular cantata about him.

Alexander Radishchev, in his Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow (1790), refers to the story of St Alexis as sung by a blind soldier begging in Klin, near Moscow.

Mikhail Kuzmin wrote a play ("Komediia o Aleksee cheloveke bozh'em" - comedy about Alexey, God's man) about the life of St. Alexis.

St Alexius is also the Patron Saint of the religious institute known as the Alexians.