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Today (August 30, 24), the church commemorates him St. AlexanderPatriarch of Constantinople.
Saint Alexander was born in Asia Minor in 239 AD (or according to other sources, 240 AD) to pious parents who raised him as a Christian. As a child he experienced severe persecutions under Emperor Decius (249-251), then Valerian (257-260), Diocletian (303-305), and finally Galerius and Maximian (305-313).
Alexander came to Constantinople to serve the old and infirm Archbishop Metrophenes, who appointed him deacon and then elder. Because of his zeal for the Church, he became the closest associate of the Archbishop of Constantinople, which Constantine the Great chose as the new capital of the vast Roman state. Constantinople was then called Byzantium and had not yet received its glory.
When Alexander the Great was 63 years old and had reached considerable spiritual maturity, the terrible Arian heresy emerged. To combat the heresy, the First Ecumenical Council was convened in 325 AD. It was built by Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in Bithynia.
The elderly Metrophanes sent Alexander the Elder as his representative to the Council, where he vigorously opposed Arianism and supported the Eastern Orthodox Church. He joined forces with the Eastern Orthodox Fathers (Athanasius, Spiridon, Nicholas, etc.) to defeat the heretic Arius.
After the Holy Synod ended and Orthodoxy triumphed, Alexander hurried to Constantinople to announce the good news to Metrophenes, who welcomed him with tears of joy and gave him the great mission to go to various local churches and spread the joyful message of the victory of the Orthodox faith.
Despite his old age (84), he traveled throughout the Balkan countries of Greece, Illyria (Albania) and Serbia, preaching the “Symbols of the Faith” established by the First Ecumenical Council.
Meanwhile, however, the 117-year-old Archbishop Mitrophanes fell seriously ill and died in June 325. Shortly before his death, however, he asked the elder Alexander to succeed him as bishop, whom he considered a worthy successor.
Saint Alexander served the Church for fifteen years as Archbishop of Vasilievsa. It was peacefully founded in 337 AD. He died at the age of 98. He was canonized posthumously. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on August 30, while the Catholic Church commemorates him on August 28.
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Ἦhos c´. Beautiful
The mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are made manifest, come, holy preachers, the Church of Christ, dearest pastor, holy Alexander, pillar of the Trinity, glorious John, dweller of your grace, and saintly Paul of Akrotis, from whence we cheer you.
article Alexander: Who are the saints venerated by the Church today? Published on News IT .
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