S
SAINT ALEXIS, VIE DE
. Considered a masterpiece among the early saints’ lives, the Alexis tells the story of a
young man who vows himself to God and a life of poverty. The hero flees from Rome on
his wedding night, leaving his new bride behind with his father and mother. In exile,
Alexis earns a reputation as a holy man but disdains the worldly attention it brings. He
returns to Rome, where, unrecognized, he lives out a life of penury and degradation under
a staircase of his parents’ house. Not until his death do those around him realize that he
was a holy man. The abnegation Alexis practices is that of an imitator Christi, a person
who heeds Christ’s injunction, as reported in the Gospels, to renounce worldly position,
wealth, and family.
The Old French poem is part of a European legendary tradition of unknown origin
centering upon the “Man of God.” According to a near contemporary account, this
nameless individual died in Edessa in Mesopotamia ca. 430. An early Greek account
gave him the name Alexis and has him return to Rome to die. His feast is July 17. The
story passed through Syriac, Greek, and Byzantine stages, reaching Rome in the 10th
century. The French work is based on a Latin composite source and is generally thought
to have been written in the mid-11th century.
Alexis is often praised for its spare beauty and formal perfection. Apparently a popular
story, it survives in numerous manuscripts and in different versions. The redaction in
manuscript L (Lamspringe, now Hildesheim) is generally considered the best. It contains
125 stanzas, each of five assonating decasyllabic lines (625 lines total). A second
important manuscript, the Ashburnham, ends with stanza 110, omitting mention of the
salvation of Alexis’s family. Both manuscripts, derived from a common source, date
from the 12th century.
Thelma S.Fenster
[See also: SAINTS’ LIVES]
Paris, Gaston, and L.Pannier, eds. La vie de saint Alexis: poème du XIe siècle et renouvellements
des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Paris: Franck, 1872.
Storey, Christopher, ed. La vie de saint Alexis. Geneva: Droz, 1968.
——. An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Alexis Studies. Geneva: Droz, 1987.
Uitti, Karl D. Story, Myth, and Celebration in Old French Narrative Poetry 1050–1200. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 3–64.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1570