The legend of St. Alexis begins in the sixth century in Syria, where the story of a man of God who fled from his parents to live in Edessa and died there became widely spread. A Greek story was added to this core which told of a young man named John who became a hermit near his parents' house and revealed himself only on his death bed. When the two stories came together, the new legend spread in both the Greek-speaking and Syriac speaking world. Sometime much later, the story of Alexis came west, perhaps in the tenth century, perhaps because of German links to the Byzantine Empire. The life first appeared in Latin, and then, around 1040, it was retold in French, probably by someone who knew a Latin version. Each of the stanzas (called laisses in Old French) has five lines ending in assonances, each line having ten syllables. (It would have sounded a bit sing-songy.)

The English version below is an English translation of this French narrative, from a manuscript written around 1120 for a woman famous in her own right for her religious life, Christina of Markyate. Christina had fought her own family, particularly her mother, for the right to become a nun rather than marrying, and so the life of Alexis would have had particular appeal for her. But because the life was composed in French, then the language of the elite in England, where Christina came from, it was accessible to more than just one religious woman. This is a very rough and fast translation, but it conveys, I think, the gist of many contemporary religious ideas. All of the notes are mine, but to be consistent with other texts, I've put them in square brackets.

Citation: use standard internet citation, but cite by laisse number.

THE LIFE OF SAINT ALEXIS

1. The world was good in times of old, for there was justice, faith and love; people believed in a way that they no longer do. Everything has changed; it has lost its color. It will never again be as it was in times of old.¹

2. In Noah's day and Abraham's, and in David's, whom God loved so much, the world was good; it will never be so valiant again. It is old and fragile and is in decline, thus all good things fade away.

3. After the time that God came to save us, our ancestors were converted to Christianity. There was a lord of the city of Rome. He was a rich man, and of great nobility. For that reason I tell you I wish to speak of his son.

4. The father's name was Euphemianus. He was a count at Rome, one of the best. The emperor loved him beyond his peers. So he married a noble and respected wife, who came from the best folks in the whole country.

5. When they had lived together for a long time, that they did not have a child weighed heavily and painfully upon them. "Oh, heavenly king, give us by your command a child who will be as you wish!"²

6. They prayed so long with such humility that he granted the woman fertility. He gave them a son; they were very grateful. They had him cleansed in baptism and gave him a handsome name in the Christian manner.

7. He was baptised and named Alexis. The nurse carried him willingly and then his good father sent him to school and he learned the letters with which he was so well furnished. Then the boy went to serve the emperor.

8. When his father saw that he would have no more children, but this one alone whom he loved so much, then he thought of the time to come; then he wanted that the boy get married while his father was still alive, so he secured a girl from a free³ nobleman.

9. The girl was of very exalted parentage; she was the daughter of a count of the city of Rome. He had no other child and wanted to honorher greatly. The two fathers came together to talk; they wanted to bring their two children together.

10. They set out the terms of the marriage. When it came to doing it, they did it nobly.⁴ Lord Alexis married her handsomely, but because he did not want to reneg on this agreement; his whole desire was upon God.

11. When the day passed upon which he was married, his father said, "Son, go lay yourself down with your wife, following God's command." The son did not wish to anger his father. He went into his marriage chamber with his noble wife.

12. When he saw the bed, he looked at the virgin, while he called to mind his heavenly lord, who was dearer to him than any earthly thing. "Oh, God!" he say, "How hard sin oppresses me! If I do not flee, I believe that I will lose you!"

13. When they were left completely alone in the room, Lord Alexis began to appeal to her. He much condemned mortal life; he showed her the truth of the heavenly one, but it was late that he turned to it.

14. "Do you hear me, maiden? Look at one who clings to the spouse who redeems us with his precious blood. In this world there is no perfect love. Life is fragile, no honor lasts. This joy will turn to great sadness."

15. When he had completely shown her his thought, then he entrusted her with the buckles of his sword⁵ and the ring with which he had married her. Then he left his father's room. He fled his country in the middle of the night.

16. Then he went traveling directly to the sea. The ship that he was going to get on was right there. He paid his fare and departed. They hoisted their sail and let the ship run on the sea. They made land where God wanted them to.

17. Straightway at Laodicea, a most beautiful city, the ship arrived safely. Then Lord Alexis debarked, but I don't know how long he stayed there, but whatever it was, he did not stop serving God.

18. Then he went to the city of Edessa, to see an icon that he had heard tell of, that the angels made by God's command in the name of the Virgin, who brought salvation, St. Mary, who bore the Lord God.

19. He brought everything he possessed with him; he gave it all away so that nothing remained to him. He gave great alms throughout the city of Edessa to the poor, wherever he could find them. He did not wish to be encumbered with any goods.

20. When he had completely given away all his possessions, Lord Alexis set himself down among the poor and received the alms that God sent him. He kept as much as could keep his body alive, but what remained he gave to the poor.

21. Now let us return to his father and mother and the wife who remained along. When they knew that he had run away, there was so much sorrow that they made many a great lamentation throughout the country.

22. The father said, "Dear son, I have lost you!" The mother answered, "Alas, what has happened to you?" The wife said, "Sin has taken me from him. My friend, sweet lord, what a short time I had you. Now I am as sad as I have ever been!"

23. Then the father took his best servants. He sought his son in many lands until two of them came to straight to Edessa. There they found Lord Alexis sitting, but they didn't recognize his face or appearance.

24. So much the boy's tender flesh changed that his father's sergeants didn't recognize him. They themselves gave alms to him. He received the alms like the other brothers. They did not recognized him but immediately turned away.

25. They did not recognize him or know him. Lord Alexis praised God in heaven for these servants of his of whom he was the recipient of alms. He was their lord; now he received their alms. I cannot tell you how happy he was about it.

26. They went back to the city of Rome and announced to his father that they could not find him. But one does not have to ask whether he was sorrowful. His good mother began to grieve and frequently to lament her dear son.

27. "Son Alexis, why did your mother bear you? You have fled from me and I stay here lamenting. I do not know the place nor do I know the country you went off to seek; I am completely lost. I will never be joyful again, dear son, nor will your father."

28. She went into her room, full of grief; she was so full of despair that she left nothing there, neither a silk mantel nor any ornament at all. Her will so turned to such sadness that she never again bore herself happily.

29. "Room," she said, "You will never again adorned. Never again will happiness dwell within you!" Thus she destroyed everything as you have heard before. She hung up sacks and shredded rags; her great honor had turned to great sadeness.

30. From sorrow, his mother lay upon the ground. Thus the wife of Lord Alexis said without hesitation, "Lady," she said, "I have undergone such a great loss. From now on I will live like a turtledove.⁶ As long as I do not have your son, I want to be with you.

31. His mother answered, "If you wish to be with me, I will keep you here for the love of Alexis. Never will you take harm if I can protect you. Let us lament together in our sorrow for our friend, you for your mate and I will do so for my son."

32. It could not be otherwise, they resigned themselves to it, but they could not forget their sorrow. Lord Alexis in the city of Edessa served his lord with a good will; his enemies could never once deceive him.

33. Seventeen years passed without a word; he tortured his body in the service of God. Neither a male or female lover for love, not for all the honor it would have brought them, would want to turn to the way he lived.

34. When all his heart was so strengthened that his will never left the city, God had the icon speak out of love for the servant who kept the altar, and command him, "Call the man of God."

35. The icon said this: "Have the man of God come, for he has done God great and willing service, and he is worthy to enter into Paradise." He went and looked, but he did not know how to pick that holy man of whom the icon spoke.

36. He came back to the icon in the monastery. "Indeed," he said, "I don't know whom to recognize." The icon answered, "The one who is outside the door. He is near to God and the kingdom of heaven; he does not wish to get further away by any means."

37. He went, he looked, and had him enter the monastery. And the news went around the whole country that the icon had spoken for Alexis. He was honored everywhere by the great and the small and everyone begged him to have pity on them.

38. When he saw that they wanted to honor him, "Indeed," he said, "I can't stay here. I don't want to be encumbered by this honor." He fled the city in the middle of the night. He went directly travelling again to Laodicea.

39. Lord Alexis got on a boat. They had their wind, they ran along the sea. He hoped to arrive in Tarsus, but he could not. The shop went elsewhere. The waves carried it straight to Rome.

40. The ship of this holy man landed at one of the ports that is close to Rome. When he saw his homeland, he had great fear concerning his relatives, lest they should recognize him and burden him with the honor of this world.

41. "Oh, God!" he said, "Beautiful King who governs all things, if it please you, I never wished to be here. If my earthly parents recognize me they will take me by plea or by force. If I give them credance, they will drag me down to my destruction.

42. "And nevertheless my father desires me; my mother does the same more than any other woman alive, and my wife, whom I have abandoned to them. I will not let them put me in their power. They will not recognize me, for it is many days since they have seen me."

43. He left the ship and went traveling to Rome. He went by the roads which were so well known to him, one after another, but his father met him there; he had together with him a great mass of his men. If he recognized him, he would call him by his rightful name.

44. "Eufemianus, handsome lord, rich man, I ask you to shelter me for the love of God in your house. Lay me a pallet under your stairs for the sake of your son, for whom you have so much grief. I am greatly ill; let me be fed for the love of him."

45. When his father heard word of his son, his eyes poured forth tears, he could not stop. "For the love of God and for my dear friend, I will give you everything, good man, that you have asked me for, bed and shelter and bread and flesh and wine."

46. "O, God," he said, "Would that I had a servant who might look after him! I would make him free!" There was one who always went ahead of him. "It is for me," he said, "to watch over him by your command. For your love I will suffer this burden."

47. That man led him to the place below the stairs and made him a bed where he might rest. He brought him anything when he had need of it; he did not want to act wrongly toward his lord. By no means could any man have laid blame upon him.

48. Often his mother and father saw him and the girl he had married; by no means did they ever recognize him. Neither did they ask nor did he tell them what man he was nor what land he was from.

49. Often he saw them engaged in great mourning and weep very tenderly from their eyes, above all for him, enver once for something else. He saw them and pondered them; he had no care concerning what he saw, so turned was he toward God.

50. Under the stair where he lay on his mat, there the man fed upon the scraps of the table. This descendent of a great family lived in great poverty. He didn't want his mother to recognize him; he loved God more than his lineage.

51. Of the food that came to him from the house he kept enough to sustain his body. If anything more was left, he gave it to the almoners. He did not store it up to fatten his body, but gave it to the poor to eat.

52. He went to the holy church willingly. Every holiday he took the Eucharist. Holy Scripture was his advisor; it strengthened him in the service of God. He did not by any means wish to draw away from it.

53. Under the stair where he lived and lay, there he engaged joyfully in his poverty. The serfs of his father who carried out the household's dirty water threw it on his head. He didn't get angry or rebuke them.

54. Everyone jeered at him; they thought he was a madman. They threw water on him; they got his bed all wet. This very holy man didn't get angry, but he prayed to God that He would forgive them through His mercy, for they did not know what they did.⁷

55. He lived there for seventeen years. Not a one recognized his appearance, nor did any man know his troubles, only his bed on which he had lain so much. It could not help him or notice.

56. He had tormented his body for thirty-four years. God wished to reward him for his service. His illness greatly increased. Then he knew when that he would have to depart. He called his servant to him.

57. "Dear brother, bring me ink and parchment and a pen, I beg you, with my thanks." The man brought them; Alexis received them. He wrote the whole document by himself, how he had gone off and how he had come back.

58. He kept it close to himself; he didn't want to show it to anyone lest they recognize him, until he departed. He held himself perfectly to God's command. His end approached; his body was troubled; little by little he ceased to speak.

59. In the week that he had to depart, a voice came three times in the city outside the shrine, by the comand of God who invites all those who are faithful to him: the glory that He wanted to give Alexis was near at hand.

60. At the second speaking He made another charge to them, that they should seek the man of God who was living in Rome. They were to beg him that the city not fall and that the people who lived there should not perish. Those who heard it were in great fear.

61. St. Innocent was then the pope. The rich and the poor went to him and demanded of him advice concerning this matter that they had heard, which had greatly frightened them. They did not know the hour that the earth would swallow them up.

62. The pope and the emperor, the one was named Arcadius, the other Honorius, and all the people in one prayer together prayed God that he would give them counsel, concerning this holy man by whom they would be protected.⁸

63. They begged him for his pity, that he should teach them so that they might survive. A voice came which dicated to them, "Seek in the house of Euphemianus. For there he is. You will find him there."

64. Everyone went to Lord Euphemianus's house. Some began to chastise him harshly. "You should have announced this matter to us, to all the people who are frightened. As you have concealed it, you have committed a great sin."

65. He refused, like a man who does not know, but they didn't believe him. They went to his house. He went ahead to get the house ready. He asked forcely of all his ministerials; they answered that they knew nothing of it.

66. The pope and the emperor sat down on a bench, sad and weeping. All the other lords looked at them. They prayed God to give them His advice concerning this holy man who would save them.

67. And while they were sitting there, the soul of St. Alexis left his body. It went straight to Paradise to the Lord it had served so well. Oh, celestial king! Make us go there!

68. The good servant who served him willingly announced this to his father Euphemianus. He called him gently and advised him thus. "Lord," he said, "your alms-taker is dead, and I know enough to say he was a good Christian."

69. "I have talked a long time with him. I know nothing for which to chide him, and it seems to me that he is the man of God." Euphemianus turned himself around and went all alone to his son where he lay under the staircase.

70. He raised up the cloths with which he was covered. He saw the face of the holy man bright and handsome.⁹ In his hand the servant of God held his charter where he had written all about his conversion. Euphemianus wanted to know what it said.

71. He wanted to take it, but the other one didn't want to let it go. He went all abashed to the pope. "Now I have found what we have been looking for. Under my staircase lies a dead pilgrim. He holds a charter, but I cannot take it from him."

72. The pope and the emperor came before him, and fell to their prayers. They greatly afflicted their bodies. "Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy, most holy man! We did not yet know what we know now!"

73. "Before you are two sinners. By the grace of God, one is called the emperor. It is by His mercy that He grants us the honor.¹⁰ Of all of this world we are the judge. We are completely in need of your advice."

74. "This pope must govern souls. This is his calling, which he must carry out. Grant him by your mercy, that it may tell us what is written there and may God give us that by which we can save ourselves!"

75. The pope put his hand to the charter. St. Alexis let it go. He allowed it to the one who was the pope of Rome. He didn't read it or look at it. He held it out to a good and learned clerk.

76. The chancellor, whose job it was, he read the charter. The others listened. Of this jewel that he had found there he told them the name, of the mother and father, and he told them of what family he came from.

77. And he told them of how he had fled by sea, and how he had come to the city of Edessa, and how the icon of God spoke for him, and because he did not wish to be burdened with the honor he fled again to the city of Rome.

78. When his father heard what the charter said, he tore his white beard with both his hands. "Oh, son!" he said, "what a sorrowful message! I waited until you were to return, by the mercy of God, to comfort me!"

79. The father began to cry out aloud, "Son Alexis what sorrow you have caused me! I have taken poor care of you under my staircase! Alas! Sinful man, how blind I was. I saw you so often, yet I could not know it!

80. "Oh, son, your sorrowful mother! She has endured such grief for you, and such hunger and such thirst and so many tears has she wept for your body. This sorrow will kill her today!

81. "Oh, son, to whom will I leave my great inheritance, my vast lands of which I have enough, my large palace in the city of Rome? For your sake, I took such pains over them, my son. You would have been enobled by them after my death.

82. "I have a white head and hoary beard. I kept hold of my great honor for you, my son, but you didn't care about it. Such great sorrow has come to me. Son, may your soul be absolved in heaven!

83. "It would have suited you to wear the helm and hauberk, your sword buckled on like all the other peers. You should have ruled your large retinue, to carry the banner of the emperor, as your father did and your ancestors.

84. "You gave yourself to such sorrow and such great poverty, my son, in foreign lands. And of all this wealth that should have been yours you took little enough in your poor dwelling. If it pleased God, you should have been the lord of it all."

85. The noise of the sorrow that tormented the father was great; the mother heard it. She came running like a madwoman, clapping her hands, crying out, disheveled. She saw her son dead; she fell to the ground in a faint.

86. Whoever then saw her great sorrow, her beating her breast and flinging her body down, tearing her hair and bruising her face, and kissing and hugging her dead son, he could not have been so hard-hearted as not to weep.

87. She tore her hair and beat her check. She put her flesh to great torment herself. "Oh, son," she said, "how you must have hated me! And I, so sorrowful, how blind I was! I did not know that I had ever seen you again."

88 Her eyes wept and she gave great cries. She expressed her regret always. "In an evil hour did I bear you, handsome son! And did you not have mercy on your mother? Since you saw me long for death on your account, it is a great marvel that you did not take pity on me!

89. "Alas, wretch, what a terrible misfortune I've had! I see all my progeny dead. My long waiting is turned to great sorrow. What could I have done, lamenting and ill-fated! It is a great marvel that my heart has endured so long!

90. "Son Alexis, you had a very hard heart when you turned your back on your noble lineage! But if you could have at least spoken to me alone one time, me your unhappy mother, how you would have comforted her who was so sorrowful. Dear son, you would have come in a good hour!

91. "Son Alexis, oh your tender flesh! To what sadness you have given your youth. Why did you do it? I carried you in my womb, and God knows that I am completely sorrowful. I will never be joyful again for any man or any woman.

92. "Before I had you I was desirous [of you]; before you were born I was full of anguish. When you were born I was joyful and happy. Now I see you dead, I am completely full of pain. It weighs upon me that my end is so delayed.

93. "Lord of Rome, for the love of God have mercy. Help me to lament my sorrow over my friend. Great is the mourning that has fallen upon me. I cannot do a thing to satisfy my heart. That is no marvel; I have neither daughter nor son."

94. During the lamentation of the father and the mother, came the maid whom he had married. "Lord," she said, "how long you have kept me waiting. I waited for you in the house of your father, where you left me lamenting and lost.

95. "Lord Alexis, I have longed for you so many days, and so many tears have I wept for your body, and so many times have I watched for you from afar (although not at all because of wrong-doing or weariness), that you might return to comfort your wife.

96. "Oh, dear friend, your handsome youth!¹¹ It weighs upon me that it shall rot on earth. Oh noble man, how sorrowful can I be? I awaited good news of you, but now I see the news is so harsh and so bad!¹²

97. "O beautiful mouth, handsome face and carriage, how I see your beautiful visage changed! I loved you more than any other creature. Such great sorrow has come to me today! Better that you had come to me, friend, than that you were dead.

98. "If I had known you there under the stair, when you lay in your long illness, every person there is could not have prevented me from living there together with you. If it had been permitted me, I would have protected you.

¹¹[Lovers called each other "friend," so this is the language of romance, also growing at this time.]

¹²[The play on "good news" is probably deliberate here; the English word "gospel" means "good news." This lamentation, particularly on the mother's part, reproduces the lamentations over the body of the dead Christ.]

99. Now I am a widow, lord," said the maid. "I have never known happiness¹³ for I could not, for I never have had carnal knowledge of a man on earth. I will serve God, the king who governs everything. He will not fail me if He sees that I serve him."

100. So much did the mother and father and the maid weep that they were completely wearied. Meanwhile, all the lords attended to the holy body and dressed in handsomely. How blessed was he who they honored with this deed!

101. "Lord, what are you doing?" said the pope. "What are all these cries, these lamentations, this noise? To him this is sorrow, for us it is joy. For through this man we shall have a good helper; this is the holy man who shall draw us out of all evils."

102. All those took him who could come. They sang while they carried the body of St. Alexis, and they prayed that he should have mercy on them. It was necessary to summon those who had hated him. They all ran there, the great and the small.

103. Thus all the people of Rome came together. They all came there as soon as they could run there. Through the streets such great crowds came that neither a king nor count could force his way through, nor could the holy body pass either.

104. The lords began to talk among themselves. "The press is great; we cannot pass through. The people are happy about this holy body that God has given us, which they so much desired. They all are running here; no one wants to turn away."

105. They responded who held the empire in their power, "Have mercy, lords! We will seek a remedy. We will make a great distribution of our possessions to the small folk who seek alms. If they press upon us, thus will we be delivered of them."

106. They took gold and silver from their treasury. They had it thrown in front of the poor folk. By this means they thought to be disencumbered. But it could not be. They did not budge in the slightest. They had turned their desires toward the holy body.

107. With one voice the small folk called, "We have no interest in these goods. Such great happiness has appeared before us from this holy body, we have no need of any other favor; for through this we shall have good help."

108. Never before in Rome had there been such great happiness, as the poor and the rich had that day because of the holy body that they had in their possession. It seemed to them that they touched God Himself; All the people praised and blessed God.

109. St. Alexis had a good will. For that reason on this day he was honored. His body lay in the city of Rome, and his soul was in God's paradise. Well could that person be happy who had gone there.

110. That person who had committed a sin could well remember that through penance he could save himself. This world is brief; await a more long-lasting one. We pray the Holy Trinity that together with Them we may rule in heaven.

111. The deaf and the blind and the lame and the leprous and the mute and the one-eyed and the palsied and above all the sick, none of them who came there suffering goes home with his illness.

112. No one came burdened with an illness, but that if he called upon Alexis he was cured. Some went there, some had themselves carried. Thus God showed them true miracles: those who came weeping went away singing.

113. Those two lords who governed the empire, when they saw these virtues so evident, they accepted him; they carried and served him. Partially by prayer and more by power they went ahead. They broke up the crowd.

114. A martyr called St. Boniface, had a very beautiful church in Rome. ¹⁴ They carried Alexis there indeed and set him on the ground. Blessed is the place where his holy body was sheltered!

115. The Roman people who had so much desired him, kept him above the earth for seven days by force. The press was great; one need not ask. On all sides they so surrounded him that a man could hardly stay there.

116. On the seventh day the resting place of this holy body, this celestial gem, was made. They carried it down; the crowd let it go. Whether they wanted to or not, they let it be put in the earth. It pained them but they could do nothing else.

117. With censors, with golden candalabras, the clergy clad in albs and cloaks set the body in a sarcophagus of marble. Some sang; more wept tears. Thus their desire was not detached from him.

118. The sarcophagus was adorned with gems and gold for the holy body they were to put within it. They put it in the earth by pure force. The people of the city of Rome wept. There was no man under the sun who could comfort them.

119. There is no need to say how much the father and the mother and the wife lamented, for they all had voices so moderated that all wept and all mourned as one. That day a hundred thousand tears were shed.

120. They could no longer keep him above ground. Whether they wanted to or not they had to let him be buried. They said farewell to the body of St. Alexis, and thus they prayed that he would have mercy on them, that to His Lord, it would be a good advocate for them.

121. The people left. And the father and the mother and the maid never departed. They were together until they returned to God. Their company was good and honorable. Their souls were saved by that holy man.

122. St. Alexis is in heaven, without a doubt, together with God, in the company of the angels, with the maiden whom he made such a stranger to him. Now he has her with him; their souls are together. I cannot tell you how great is their happiness.

123. What good pains and what good service, God, did this holy man do in this mortal life. For now his soul is filled with glory. He has what he wants, there is nothing more to say about it. Above all he sees God with his own eyes.

124. Alas! Wretches! How we are weighed down. For we see that we are all mad. We are so blind to our sins that they make us forget the righteous life. We should be illuminated by this holy man.

125. Lords, we should have this holy man in our memories, this worthy man who takes away all evils from us. In this world he brings us peace and joy and in the other the longest-lasting glory in that same Word: let us say the Paternoster.¹⁵