On February 25, the holy Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the martyr Alexander. Alexander was said to hail from Carthage, although there are some indications from other sources that he actually came from Italy. Whichever it was, he lived under the reign of the impious Emperor Maximian. Of course, Maximian was a very devilish personage, who seemed to take a lot of delight in persecuting Christians, so the times were very, very dangerous indeed.

Alexander was exposed as a Christian, and eventually brought before this emperor, who told him essentially that he had to offer sacrifice to the idols. Alexander refused, whereupon he was taken, hung by his fingers with a great weight tied to his feet. When this did not have the desired effect, he was then tied to a pole, when he was flogged, and then his flesh was flayed. As painful as this was and as difficult to bear, Alexander yet refused to offer any sort of sacrifice to the idols.

We often look back upon some of these stories, especially for the moderns of this time, and get the impression that somehow, since many of them seem so similar in the extreme nature of their torments, that these were simply transferred from saint to saint in a very static, hagiographical manner. But I think it’s something different. We have to realize that in those days—and this was between 280 and 300 that this event took place—the torments were extreme, and the emperors would go to no end of trouble in order to get Christians to turn from their faith. It wasn’t until the sainted Emperor Constantine would come along just a few years later and make the Christian religion legitimate in the empire that these torments ended. But from the time of our Lord up until around n330 AD, things could get very dicey, and the Church was often forced underground.

But Alexander was resolute, and he was transferred yet to someplace else, where the governor of the region, Tiberian, asked him again if he would deny his faith and sacrifice to the idols. Well, Alexander refused yet again, and they burned his face severely. After this, he was asked for a third time if he would deny his Lord and if he would indeed come and sacrifice to the idols. He said no, resolutely.

So this is exactly what happened, and he was beheaded, and he was thrown into a river, whereupon four devout Christians were able to recover his relics, and they presented them to his mother. Now his mother also played a role in all of this, for when he was being transferred from place to place, between these horrible tortures, his mother was encouraging him along the way. After Alexander’s repose, he appeared to her and thanked her for her encouragement. This might seem a little strange to us today, because most of us—even Orthodox Christians—would probably be doing everything they could to get their son or daughter or relative, whomever it was, out of danger and back safely at home, not wanting any harm to come to them. But the mother in this case, very, very devout, knew what a wonderful reward lay in store for her son in the kingdom of heaven. So, not trying to discourage him from making his combative effort in spiritual warfare, she encouraged him to endure the things that were being thrust upon him with patience, and in so doing, she actually showed her great love for him, because she was a woman of great faith, just like her son, and she knew that in the end all would be well.