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St. Alexius the Man of God Painting

Alexey Pismenny

United States

Painting, Oil on Other

Size: 16 W x 20 H x 1 D in

This artwork is not for sale.
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About The Artwork

"...the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic at Edessa lived the life of a beggar and was later venerated as a saint" -- says the Catholic Encyclopedia about St. Alexius. If so, then the life goal of St. Alexius: holy anonymity,-- has been achieved. His parents were Senator Euphemianus and Aglaida, wealthy, notorious and pious Romans. It was late 4c., so Rome was already Christian and his parents lived like Christians, with faith and charity. His marriage with a girl of appropriate stature was arranged. The saint, however, refused to consummate the marriage and instead left Rome for Edessa, the capital of Armenian Mesopotamia, at that time outside of the Roman Empire. Edessa was rich in history and culture. The relics of Apostle Thomas rested there; many had received martyrdom just over a century ago when the country was under pagan Rome's rule. It is there, in late 4c. St. Ephrem the Syrian founded the School of the Persians, the outpost of the Christian faith in the East. In A.D. 388, -- about the time St.Alexius arrived there, -- many churches and other sanctuaries are chronicled to exist in Edessa. It wasn't at all a desolate place we usually associate with asceticism. It would not them have been impossible for the saint to attach himself to a church or a monastery, perhaps reach ordination, or even pursue a scholarly career. Instead, he gave the rest of his possessions away, put on raged clothes, restricted his diet to bread and water, and became a beggar. At nights, he prayed. That was his life for 17 years. Today we'd call that a wasted life. His parents send a search party after him, who passed Edessa, saw St. Alexius begging, gave him alms, but they did not recognize him, and the search failed. As years passed, the beggar saint became noticed by the citizens. A church beadle received a vision of the Virgin Mother of God pointing to St. Alexius as a "man of God". This gave him his moniker. Let us meditate on this. It is not uncommon today to feel compassion for beggars, and also support them directly or through various charities. We also have respect for monks as we see in monasteries institutions that produce spiritual and, at times, tangible values. But how often would we feel admiration and gratitude for a beggar who does not work in principle, and spends all his time praying? The fact that veneration of such beggar started in early-medieval Edessa shows us a society that valued individual prayer as a communal asset. We could learn from them. The veneration troubled St. Alexius and he fled Edessa. He passed through Tarsus (birth place of St. Paul), took to the sea, got shipwrecked and the wreck floated to Italian shore. Apparently seeing divine guidance in his misfortune, he came back to his aged parents' house in Rome. The saint did not disclose, and Euphemianus and Aglaida did not recognize his identity. Willing to accommodate a poor stranger they let him stay in a cubby hole under the stairs, and ordered their servants to give him food. The saint continued another 17 years, unrecognized, living under the stairs in his parent's house. His parents and the abandoned bride grieved over their loss. The saint was aware of their sobbing, and saw in it another aspect of his and theirs necessary trial. He allowed the things to remain as they were: he, under the stairs praying and fasting, they, upstairs, in grief. Again, our modern mind refuses to process this. The youthful wanderlust we understand; the asceticism we can respect; but why was the heartache of the parents and the bride prolonged for another seventeen years after the saint's return? In the moniker that Our Lady gave him, "man of God", must be the clue. Alexius did not serve God as we all do, one person serving another (some serve God without knowing that they do); he became of God, and his identity faded away. Consider this: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). "Hate", the Church understands, is not permissible even toward the enemy; but passions and attractions, those of the family love often the strongest among them, may have the effect of separating us from God. That was the task before the saint, to live like the Gospel was addressed to him, and in that task he persevered. In Edessa, Alexius's holiness led to public veneration, but in Rome, -- perhaps due to the peculiar spirituality of the West, perhaps due to Alexius having engineered his reclusion so skillfully -- the pious stranger was not much noticed. That Rome needed his revelation no less than Edessa was revealed during a liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica, when a mysterious voice proclaimed: "Seek the man of God that he may pray for Rome and the Romans". And then another time: "The man of Gods is in Euphemianus's house, seek him there". They sought, and eventually, through servants, the ascetic life of St. Alexius became known. However, when they came to his room under the stairs, the saint was dead. His dead hand clutched a letter, and the letter revealed his identity. His funeral was grand and accompanied with miracles. He rests in St Boniface on the Aventine Hill in Rome. His feast day is 17 July in the West, and 17 March in the East. My painting shows St. Alexius leaving his ancestral home on the top pane, and the discovery of his body by the servants on the lower pane. The book is open on the phrase "εκατοντα ληψεται", abbreviated from "εκατονταπλασιονα ληψεται" ("shall receive an hundredfold", Matthew 19:29). Alexius is my patron saint. As I was working on the painting I began to better understand the touch points that exist between my life and the saint's. That is because at baptism the child is introduced to Christ and through Him to the entire body of the Heavenly Church; the patron saint then undertakes to lead the child and thus has a mystical impression on the life of the child. This is a painting, not an icon: it reflects my personal meditation perhaps more than my other devotional work. If you, dear reader, suspect a similar link with the life and the feat of St. Alexius, obtain the saint's icon and incorporate him in your prayer routine. If you know your patron saint (or saints), include them in your prayers. If you don't know who your patron saint is, try to find out; he or she may not be your namesake. He is connected to your life in ways we don't understand.

Details & Dimensions

Painting:Oil on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:16 W x 20 H x 1 D in

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I am, primarily, a Catholic Christian who paints. My religious art is an extension of my faith. You can think of me as a Catholic stuckist.
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