Alexy, a man of God

The story of St. Alexis is known only from everyday literature. The oldest text of life (in which Alexy dies in Edessa ) was written in Syria on the basis of oral tradition in the second half of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. Around the 9th century , the Greek version of life appears, in which Alexy returns to Rome. ^[one]

According to the life, Alexy was born into a noble Roman family. His parents, Senator Euthymianus and Aglaid, were pious Christians who helped the destitute and needy. For their son, the parents chose a bride from a noble family. On the night after the betrothal, Alexy, left alone with his bride, gave her a belt buckle and a wedding ring, saying: “ Save this, and the Lord be between you and me, until He renews us with His grace .” After that, he left his home and sailed on a ship to the East.

After arriving in Laodicea of ​​Syria (now Latakia in Syria ), Alexy stuck to the mule drivers and got with them to Edessa (now Sanliurfa in Turkey ). Here Alexy distributed the remnants of the property, dressed in rags and began to beg. Over the next seventeen years, Alexy lived in alms, ate only bread and water, and spent all nights in vigil and prayer. Over the years, the saint has changed so outwardly that the servants sent by his parents to search for the missing son, including Edessa, gave him alms, but did not recognize him.

After seventeen years of asceticism, the rumor of holiness Alexy widely spread throughout Syria. Moreover, the Blessed Virgin Mary herself pointed to Alexy as a saint to the church guard of Edes. From the revered miraculous icon of the Mother of God (later called Madonna di Sant Alessio ) at night a voice was heard calling Alexis the man of God. This went on for several nights in a row. Embarrassed by the reverence given to him by the whole people, Alexy secretly escaped from Edessa, intending to cross over to Tars on the ship. But the ship fell into a storm and after many days was nailed to the Italian coast.

Unrecognized, Alexy returned to Rome and came to his native home. His parents did not recognize his son, but allowed him to stay in their house. Alexy lived in a closet under the stairs, and a servant was assigned to him, who was ordered to feed the wanderer with food from the master's table. The rest of the servants, out of jealousy, insulted Alexy, but he accepted the insults with humility. Living in a rich house, Alexy continued to be in constant fasting and prayer. The most difficult test for the saint was to hear the sobs of his mother and bride, who continued to mourn him. So another seventeen years passed.

In 411 ^[1] or 417 ^[2] during the Sunday liturgy in the Cathedral of St. Peter, the voice of God indicated to the prayers: “ Seek the man of God to pray for Rome and all his people .” The following Thursday, the same voice indicated to the people: " In the house of Euthymianus is a man of God, look there ." Emperor Honorius and Pope Innocent I in vain asked Euthymianus - he did not know anything about the righteous man who lived in his house. And only then did the servant attached to Alexy tell Euthymian about Alexy's asceticism.

Euphemian, hastily returning to his house, did not find Alexy alive. The deceased's face shone, and in his hand was a scroll. In vain did Euthymianus and the family try to seize the scroll from the hands of the saint. Only when Pope Innocent I, who arrived at the house, asked the saint for permission to read the scroll, Alexy's hand was released. From the scroll, those present learned about who the man of God really was.

Alexy's body was put up for farewell in the square, and with his grave there were numerous healings. The pope and the emperor personally carried the body of the saint in a funeral procession and buried him in the church of St. Boniface on Aventine Hill.

The story of St. Alexis in the Orthodox East was widespread. The first mention of a man of God (so far anonymous), who lived alms in Edessa under Bishop Ravvul ( 412 - 435 ) and who later came from a noble Roman family, dates back to the 5th century in Syrian sources. Until the 9th century, the veneration of St. Alexius was spread first in Syria, and from there throughout the Byzantine Empire . Starting from the X century , the name of St. Alexius appears in the Roman clergy.

The emergence of the cult of St. Alexis in the Christian West is associated with the arrival in Rome of Syrian clergy, forced to flee Muslim oppression. In 977, the church of St. Boniface was transferred by Pope Benedict VII to Metropolitan Sergius of Damascus . Sergius founded a monastery at the church for monks of both Greek and Latin rites. The monastery that emerged became famous as the " Abode of the Saints ", in the following centuries the monastery became one of the centers of piety, and its inhabitants conducted missionary work in Eastern Europe. The most famous native of this monastery was St. Adalbert of Prague .

In 1216, the relics of St. Alexius were acquired and laid under the main altar of the church on Aventine Hill. The church itself since 986 began to be called in honor of two saints - Boniface and Alexius. The relics of St. Alexis were divided: the head is located in the Greek monastery of St. Lavra near the city of Kalavrita in Greece (according to legend, donated by the monastery by Emperor Manuel II Paleolog ), in the Novgorod Cathedral of St. Sophia, the saint’s hand was stolen, according to a 17th century legend, from Rome by a Novgorod merchant . Particles are also separated from relics at the present time: for example, in 2006, a particle of the relics of St. Alexis was donated to the John the Baptist Monastery from Italy. ^[3]

Since 2018, a silver ark with a large particle of relics (ulnar bone) of the Monk Alexy, a man of God (in ancient times, this particle of relics was stored in Rome, was transferred to one of the monasteries in France in the Holy Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra ). For worship is submitted to the Triumph of Orthodoxy . ^[four]

Most likely, thanks to the numerous missionaries and preachers who left the “ Abode of the Saints ”, the life of St. Alexis became widely known in Western Europe. Thibault Champagne ’s poem about Saint Alexis is the first work written in the Languedo dialect of the French language. The life of Saint Alexis is described in Legenda aurea (The Golden Legend ) and Vita dei Patri - valuable life sources of the 13th century . In 1632, an opera about the life of St. Alexis was staged in the Palazzo Barberini to the music of Stefano Landi and the libretto by Giulio Rospillosi (future Clement IX ). In 1710, Camilla de Rossi wrote an oratorio on the same subject.

The life of St. Alexis was a very popular subject for church art in Italy. The earliest known fresco is the Life of St. Alexius in the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome. This fresco depicts the events of the last years of the saint's life: return to Rome and meeting with his father; deceased Alexy with a charter in his hand; Pope Innocent I begs the saint to open his hand; relatives recognize their son as deceased.

From Byzantium, the veneration of St. Alexius the man of God passed to Russia, where the life of this saint was one of the most read. The cantata of Rimsky-Korsakov is dedicated to Saint Alexis. In A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow ( 1790 ) by Alexander Radishchev, the story of Alexy is given in the song of a blind soldier who asks for alms in the city of Klin near Moscow .

Since 1890, Saint Alexy has been the heavenly patron of the Transbaikal Cossack army ^[5] .

Iconography

Presumably the earliest ( VIII century ) image of St. Alexis was preserved on a fresco in the crypt of the basilica of St. Boniface and Alexius on the Aventine hill in Rome. In Russian iconographic scripts, the similarity of the image of Alexy with John the Baptist is noted:

... way, with bastard and hair, like John the Baptist, the robe is the same wild green, beggarly rags, holds hands to heart; Inde writes: there is a scroll in his left hand, and in it is written a letter: " Behold father and mother, wife and family, and friends, villages and estates ."

In the murals of Orthodox churches, the image of St. Alexis was usually placed in the narthexes among the reverends , ascetics, and ascetics. In Russian icon painting, the images of St. Alexis are often patronized. This was especially pronounced in the middle - second half of the 17th century, since Saint Alexy was the heavenly patron of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich . During this period, he was often portrayed together with the Monk Mary of Egypt (the first wife of Tsar Maria Miloslavskaya was named after her) or with the martyr Natalya (heavenly patroness of the second wife of the king Natalya Naryshkina).

European art is mainly characterized by separate scenes of the life of St. Alexius (for example, on the frescoes of the XI century in the church of San Clemente in Rome, in miniatures of manuscripts of the XII century ). The most frequently depicted servants pouring dirty water on a saint in the clothes of a beggar or a Roman pope, kneeling before Alexy, lying on his deathbed. This tradition can be traced in the stained-glass windows and frescoes of the XIV-XV centuries and in engravings of the XVI-XVIII centuries.

Gymnography

In the East, the early texts of the service to St. Alexis are known by the Typicon of the Great Church ( X century ), the Verse Prologue ( XI century ), the Studio-Alexievsky Typicon ( 1034 ). Western sources: the Messinian Typicon of 1131 and the Evergetid Typicon (first half of the 12th century ) indicate the service of Alexis with Hallelujah , and if the celebration coincides with the Sabbath or Sunday, sing sticheras , saddle and read the life.

Currently, the Orthodox Church uses the service to St. Alexis, contained in the Mineas of the studio edition , and the canon to the saint, compiled by the Rev. Joseph the Songwriter.

In the course of the liturgical reform undertaken after the Second Vatican Council , the feast of St. Alexius of the man of God was excluded from the new edition of the General Roman Calendar (1969). Thus, the commemoration of St. Alexis on July 17 at the Mass and Liturgy of the clock is no longer mandatory for all the dioceses of the Catholic Church, it takes place only in countries and monastic orders associated with the saint. In the Roman Catholic Order, whose patron saint is St. Alexius, his memory is celebrated with special solemnity. The basis for exclusion from the General calendar was the legendary nature of his life, not confirmed by modern sources. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, the life of St. Alexis is expounded, but with the comment: “Probably the only basis for this story is that a certain pious ascetic lived in Edessa as a beggar and was later revered as a saint.”

Saint Alexis is the patron saint of the Catholic Order of Alexandians (or Celite), which arose in Europe in the 14th century to help the sick (especially the mentally ill) and to combat epidemics of the plague. According to Annuario Pontificio for 1997, there were 124 people in the order ^[6] .

In honor of Alexy, the man of God, were named:

• Alekseevka - a district of the city of Kharkov and the eponymous source.
• Alekseevsky Starodevichy Convent in Moscow - not preserved Orthodox convent, located on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior . During the construction of the temple was moved to the Red Village .
• Novo-Alekseevsky Monastery is an Orthodox monastery located on the territory of Moscow in Krasnoye Selo.
• The Virgin Mary-Alekseevsky Monastery is a functioning Orthodox monastery in Tomsk .
• The temple of Alexy, the man of God, in the Red Village is the current Orthodox church of the Epiphany of the Epiphany of the Moscow city diocese. Compound of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The temple is located in the Krasnoselsky district of the Central administrative district of Moscow (2nd Krasnoselsky lane, 3).
• Temple of the Monk Alexy, a man of God (Moscow Region, Sergiev Posad District, Khotkovo , 42 Gorbunovskaya Street).
• Church of Alexy, the man of God, in Kostroma .
• Church in the name of Rev. Alexy, the man of God ( Voronezh , Zheleznodorozhny district, Repnoye village).
• Church of St. Alexis, a man of God from the field (Pskov, Sovetskaya street, 100).
• Alekseevsky monastery in the village of Zolotukhino , Kursk region.
• Alekseevskaya fair in Kotelnich, Kirov region.
• Holy Alekseevskaya desert - Yaroslavl region, Pereslavl region.
• The Holy Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra , the cave of the Holy Alekseevsky Church in the monastery caves.
• Church of Alexy, a man of God, in the village of Klyuchi, Klyuchevsky district, Altai Territory
• Church of St. Alexis, a man of God, in Kharkov (Klochkovskaya street, 317/319).
• Church in the name of St. Alexis, a man of God , in Odessa (Alekseevskaya Square, 19a).
• The temple in honor of the righteous Alexis, a man of God, in Yadrin (street 50 years of October, 71e) ^[7] .
• Church of St. Alexei, a man of God, in Bugaevka ^[8] (Ostrovsky street, 2a)
• Temple of St. Alexius, a man of God, in Martsien, Latvia
• Church of Alexy, a man of God, in Shuya .
• Church of Alexy the man of God - the patron saint of the Ussuri Cossack army in the village of Kamen-Rybolov of Primorsky Territory.

in Russian

• Adrianova V.P. Life of Alexy, a man of God, in ancient Russian literature and folk literature. P., 1917
• Benevich G. I. Life of the Monk Alexy, a man of God (overcoming alienity in the context of church tradition) // Alien: experiences of overcoming. M., 1999.
• Aleksei saint, patron of the Lollgards // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Life and deeds of the man of God Alexy // Byzantine legends / Entry. Art., per., approx. S.V. Polyakova . M., 1994.
• Tolstaya TB Alexy, a man of God // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2001. - T. II. - S. 8-12. - 752 s. - 40,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-007-2 .
• Alexy, a man of God / Turilov A. A. // A - Questioning [Electronic resource]. - 2005. - S. 467. - (The Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 1). - ISBN 5-85270-329-X .

in other languages

• St. Alexius // Catholic Encyclopedia
• “Basilica of the saints Boniface and Alexis, Rome” - Roma, 2007
• Storey Ch. An annotated bibliography and guide to Alexis studies (La Vie de Saint Alexis). Gen., 1990

• Life of Alexy, the man of God (Library of literature of Ancient Russia / RAS. IRLI)

• Alexey, a man of God // Songs of the Russian People, Imperial Russian Geographical Society
• Zolotukhinsky convent in the name of St. Alexis, the Man of God // monastery website