Alexius was the son of Euphemianus, a most noble man among the Romans and foremost in the emperor's court. Three thousand servants attended him, who were girded with golden belts and clothed in silken garments. Now the prefect Euphemianus was very merciful, and every day in his house three tables were prepared for the poor, orphans, widows, and pilgrims. He served them zealously, and at the ninth hour he himself took food with religious men in the fear of the Lord. His wife, named Aglaes, was of the same religion and purpose. But when they had no son, at their prayers the Lord granted them a son, after whom they thereafter resolved to live in chastity. And the boy was handed over to the liberal disciplines.
When he excelled in all the arts of philosophy and had now reached the age of puberty, a maiden from the imperial household was chosen for him and joined to him as his wife. The night came on which he was alone with his bride in the secret silence. Then the holy youth began to instruct his bride in the fear of God and to urge her to the modesty of virginity. Then he handed over to her for safekeeping his golden ring and the end of the belt with which he was girded, saying:
'Receive this and keep it, until it shall please God, and may the Lord be between us.' After this, taking some of his substance, he departed to the sea, and secretly boarding a ship he came as far as Laodicea, and proceeding thence he set out to the city of Edessa in Syria, where the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, made without human work, was kept upon a cloth. Arriving there, he distributed to the poor all that he had brought with him, and putting on cheap garments he began to sit with the other poor in the courtyard of the Mother of God, Mary. Of the alms he kept for himself only as much as could suffice him, and the rest he gave out to the other poor.
But his father, greatly lamenting his son's departure, sent his servants through all parts of the world to seek him diligently. When some of them had come to the city of Edessa, they were recognized by him, but themselves not recognizing him, they gave him alms together with the other poor. Receiving these and giving thanks to God, he said: 'I give You thanks, O Lord, because You have made me receive alms from my own servants.' But the servants, returning, reported to the father that he could nowhere be found. His mother, from the day of his departure, spread sackcloth on the floor of her chamber, where, keeping watch, she uttered mournful cries, saying: 'Here will I remain ever in mourning, until I recover my son.' But the bride said to her mother-in-law:
'Until I hear of my sweetest bridegroom, I will remain solitary with you, like a turtledove.' Now when he had remained in the aforesaid courtyard for seventeen years in the service of God, the image of the blessed Virgin which was there at last said to the keeper of the church: 'Bring in the man of God, for he is worthy of the kingdom of heaven and the Spirit of God rests upon him. For his prayer ascends like incense in the sight of God.' But when the keeper did not know of whom she spoke, she said again: 'He who sits outside in the courtyard, he is the one.' Then the keeper went out in haste and brought him into the church. When this deed became known to all and he began to be venerated by everyone, fleeing human glory he departed thence and came to Laodicea.
And there boarding a ship, when he wished to proceed to Tarsus of Cilicia, by God's disposing the ship, driven by the winds, came to the Roman port. Seeing this, Alexius said within himself: 'In my father's house I will remain unknown, and I will be a burden to no one else.' Therefore meeting his father returning from the palace, surrounded by a throng of attendants, he began to cry out after him: 'Servant of God, command that I, a pilgrim, be received in your house and fed from the crumbs of your table, that the Lord may deign to have mercy also on your own pilgrim.' Hearing this, the father, for love of his own son, ordered him to be received, and assigned him a place of his own in his house, and gave him food from his own table, and appointed a servant of his own to him.
He himself persevered in prayers and wasted his body with fasts and vigils. But the household servants mocked him in many ways, and frequently poured the slop-water of the utensils over his head, and inflicted many injuries upon him; yet he was very patient in all things. He therefore remained in his father's house thus unknown for seventeen years. Now seeing in the spirit that the end of his life was drawing near, he asked for paper with ink and wrote down there the whole course of his life. So on the Lord's Day, after the solemnities of the Masses, a voice resounded from heaven in the sanctuary, saying:
'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.' Hearing this, all, terrified, fell on their faces; and behold, a voice a second time saying: 'Seek the man of God, that he may pray for Rome.' When they sought him and could not find him, it was said again: 'Seek in the house of Euphemianus.' Being asked, Euphemianus said he knew nothing of this. Then the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, together with the pontiff Innocent, came to the house of the aforesaid man; and behold, the servant of Alexius came to his master, saying:
'See, my lord, lest it be that pilgrim of ours, for he is a man of great patience.' Euphemianus therefore, running, found him dead, and saw his face shining like that of an angel, and he wished to take the paper which he held in his hand, but he could not. Going out, then, when he had related this to the emperors and the pontiff, and they had entered to him, they said: 'Although we are sinners, yet we bear the helm of the kingdom, and this man the universal care of pastoral rule. Give us therefore the paper, that we may know what is written in it.' And the pontiff, approaching, took the paper from his hand, and he straightway released it to him; and he had it read before all the people and the multitude and his own father.
But Euphemianus, hearing this, was confounded with exceeding grief and stood stupefied, and becoming lifeless and weakened in strength, he fell to the ground. When he had come to himself a little, he tore his garments and began to pluck out the gray hairs of his head, to tug at his beard, and to rend himself, and over the body of his son he cried out: 'Alas, my son, why have you thus saddened me, and through so many years inflicted upon me sorrows and groans!
Woe is me, wretched, for I see you, the staff of my old age, lying on a pallet and not speaking to me. Alas, what consolation shall I henceforth be able to have!' But his mother, hearing this, like a lioness bursting a net, with garments torn, rushing in with hair disheveled, lifted her eyes to heaven; and when, because of the exceeding throng, she could not approach the holy body, she cried out, saying: 'Give me passage, O men, that I may see my son, that I may see the consolation of my soul, even him who sucked my breasts.' And when she had reached the body, falling upon it she cried out: 'Alas, my son, light of my eyes, why have you done so and dealt so cruelly with us! You saw your father and me, wretched, weeping, and you did not show yourself to us.
Your servants did you injury and you bore it.' And again and again she cast herself upon the body, and now spread her arms over it, now with her hands she caressed the angelic face, and kissing it she cried out: 'Weep with me, all you who are present, for seventeen years I had him in my house and did not know that he was my only son. Even the servants reviled him and struck him with blows. Alas, who will give to my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may bewail day and night the grief of my soul!' But his bride, clothed in mourning garb, ran weeping and saying: 'Alas for me, for today I am desolate and have appeared a widow. Now I have no one upon whom to look, nor to whom to lift my eyes.
Now my mirror is shattered and my hope has perished. From now on has begun a grief that has no end.' But the people, hearing this, wept lamentably. Then the pontiff with the emperors placed the body on an honored bier and led it into the midst of the city. And it was announced to the people that the man of God had been found, whom the whole city was seeking, and all ran to meet the saint. But if any sick person touched that most holy body, he was immediately healed. The blind received their sight, the demoniacs were cured. The emperors, then, seeing such wonders, began themselves with the pontiff to carry the bier, that they too might be sanctified by that holy body.
Then the emperors ordered an abundance of gold and silver to be scattered in the streets, so that the crowds might be occupied with love of money and might allow the body of the saint to be brought to the church. But the people, setting aside love of money, rushed more and more to the touch of the most sacred body. And thus with great labor they at last brought it to the temple of the holy martyr Boniface. And there, persisting for seven days in the praises of God, they wrought a monument of gold and gems and precious stones, in which they placed the holy body with great veneration. And from the monument itself there breathed forth so sweet a fragrance that it seemed to all to be full of every spice. Now he died on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of August, about the year of the Lord 398.