Traditions of St. Alexei's Day
It is believed that real warmth comes on this day, so the owners began to prepare for field work: they took potatoes outside for planting, repaired gardening equipment. They tried to do all the housework during the day, because in the evening the whole family had to gather for a meal and spend the winter.
On this day, beekeepers warmed the hives in the sun, sprinkling them with water blessed in the temple. And the fishermen were busy weaving nets for fishing - it was considered lucky and fish were caught well all year long.
What you can and cannot do on St. Alexei’s Day / photo ua.depositphotos.com
The girls also had their own traditions of the day - they went out into the field to call for spring. They did it this way: taking a canvas from the field, they bowed in all directions and said: “Here, Mother Spring, a new new thing!” The linen was left in the field with the pie to appease the heat.
On the penultimate day of March, it was common for people to collect birch buds, because they were believed to have special healing powers. They also collected birch sap for the warm Alexei and drank it with the whole family.
In churches they prayed to Saint Alexei for a good harvest and warm weather.
The complete life of our venerable father Alexy, man of God
Under the kings Arcadia and Honorius, at the end of the 4th century, a noble man named Euthymian lived in Rome with his wife Aglaida. Both of them were kind and pious, diligently fulfilled the commandments of God and generously helped the poor and needy. Every day in their house there was a treat for the poor, orphans, widows and strangers. And when few of these guests came, Euthymian became sad and said, sighing: “I am not worthy to walk on the land of my God.” Everyone respected and loved Euthymian and Aglaida; One thing was missing for their complete happiness: they did not have children. They often prayed to God to give them a son who could be a consolation and support for their old age, and God finally fulfilled their prayer: they had a son, whom they named Alexy.
One can imagine how kind parents loved Alexy, with what care they raised him, how they tried to make him kind and pious! Alexy fully rewarded their labors: he was gifted with excellent abilities, studied well, and from an early age loved the Lord with all his heart. Wanting to please Him, he secretly imposed hardships on himself, kept a strict fast, and wore a coarse hair shirt on his body. Inflamed more and more with love for God, he wished to renounce for His sake all the joys of the world in order to serve God in the monastic rite. But his parents did not want this, and when Alexy reached adulthood, they found him a bride - a girl from the royal family of extraordinary beauty and married him.
Probably, Saint Alexy did not dare to openly oppose the will of his parents, but the intention to renounce the world took root in his heart.
On the day of the wedding, when the young couple were left alone, he approached the girl, gave her a gold ring and a precious belt wrapped in a silk curtain, and said to her: “Keep this, and may God be between me and you until His grace suits there is something new in us.” With these words he left. Entering his room, Alexy took off his gold-woven clothes, put on poor and old clothes, took some money with him and left his parents’ house. He left the city and, arriving at the pier, boarded a ship bound for the Laodicean country. On the way, he prayed to God to save him from the vanity of the world and to grant him the honor to stand at His right hand at the Last Judgment. The ship arrived in Laodicea. Together with the pilgrims, Alexy went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Edessa, where the miraculous image of the Savior was located. There Alexy distributed money to the poor, and he himself began to live as a beggar near the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. He ate alms, prayed day and night, and received the Holy Mysteries every Sunday.
Of course, family life imposes responsibilities on a person, and God wants us to fulfill them. But God alone knows the heart of man. He sees with what intention a person acts and blesses everything that is done out of sincere love for Him. Leaving his parents and all the joys of family life, Alexy made the most difficult sacrifice and thereby wanted to please God. He voluntarily renounced nobility, and wealth, and worldly pleasures in order to live in humility and poverty, and God, seeing the purity of his intention, accepted his sacrifice. But it was hard for the family he left behind to bear his absence. We looked for him for a long time in the city and surrounding areas. Seeing that Alexy was not returning, his mother locked herself in her room in deep grief. “I will not leave here,” she said, “until I find out what happened to my dear son.” The young wife locked herself in with her, and they cried and were sad inconsolably. Euthymian sent his servants to different cities and countries to find out about Alexy, but all their searches were unsuccessful. Some of them arrived in Edessa, but among the beggars crowding around the temple, they did not recognize their young master and even gave him alms along with other beggars. Alexy recognized them and humbly rejoiced that he received alms from his servants.
For seventeen years Alexy lived in poverty near the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through deep humility and constant prayer, he pleased God. One of the temple servants saw the Mother of God in a dream, who said to him: “Bring the man of God into my church: for his prayer reaches God, and, like a crown on a royal head, the Holy Spirit rests on him.” The clergyman was perplexed about whom these words were about, but the vision was repeated, and the Mother of God pointed to the beggar who was sitting at the door of the temple. From then on, everyone began to show Alexy the greatest respect. Then he, not wanting human glory, secretly left the city. He boarded a ship sailing to the Cilician country, thinking to settle there at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, but something completely different happened. During the voyage, a terrible storm arose at sea, the ship rushed along the waves for a long time, moving away from the designated goal, and eventually landed on the shores of Italy, not far from Rome. Alexy decided to go to Rome and live near his father’s house.
Approaching his parents' house, he met his father, returning from church, accompanied by numerous ministers. Alexy bowed to him to the ground and said: “Servant of the Lord, have mercy on me, the poor and poor, and give me a corner in your house so that I can eat the crumbs falling from your table. The Lord will bless you and give you the Kingdom of Heaven, and if one of your loved ones wanders, he will return safely.” These last words about the wandering people reminded Euthymian of his beloved son; he shed tears, ordered to give the beggar a hut near his house and, turning to his servants, said to them: “I will give a reward to the one of you who will take care of this beggar and bring him food from my table.”
This is how Saint Alexy began to live at the gates of his father’s house. No one recognized him, because seventeen years spent in poverty and deprivation had completely changed his appearance. Every day one of the servants brought him food from his father’s table, but he distributed it to the poor, contenting himself with bread and water. He prayed incessantly, received the Holy Mysteries every Sunday, and endured with the greatest patience the poverty, contempt and insults often inflicted on him by ministers who laughed at him, scolded him and even sometimes beat him. The hardest thing for him was another test: from his hut, which stood near his father’s house, he could hear the crying and sobs of his mother and wife, who did not cease to be sad about him; but he firmly decided to sacrifice these affections to God and maintained his intention to the end.
So another seventeen years passed. God foretold Alexy's imminent death. Then he begged parchment and ink from the servant who took care of him, and described his whole life since, having handed over his ring and belt to his wife, he left his parental home. At the end of the story, he asked his parents and his wife for forgiveness: “And I sympathized with your sorrow,” he wrote, “and constantly prayed to God that He would grant you patience and make you worthy of His kingdom. I believe that He will fulfill my prayer, for out of love for Him I was so unmerciful towards your grief and so cruel to myself.” Having written this, Saint Alexy began to calmly await death and devoted himself entirely to prayer.
Around this time, as legend says, Pope Innocent celebrated the Divine Liturgy, at which King Honorius was also present. During the service, suddenly everyone heard the words: “Look for the man of God who wants to be removed from the body, so that he may pray for the city.” Everyone was seized with fear, and everyone wondered who these words pointed to. But the next day, during the all-night vigil, the same mysterious voice said: “In the house of Euthymian, look for the man of God.” Then the king said to Euthymian: “Why didn’t you tell us that a man of God lives with you?” “God knows,” answered Euthymian, “I don’t know who these words are about.” He called his steward and asked him if there was anyone among his servants who was especially distinguished by virtues and piety, but the steward could not point to anyone.
The king and dad themselves wanted to go to Euthymian’s house.
Euthymian went forward to receive the distinguished guests with due honor, and came out to meet them with candles and censers.
Suddenly, a servant entered the room where the king and dad were with Euthymian, who was entrusted with taking care of Alexy and bringing him food. “My lord,” he said to Euthymian, “isn’t that beggar whom you entrusted to me a man of God? He spends the whole night in prayer, keeps a strict fast and endures insults with patience and meekness.” Hearing this, Evfimian went to the hut in which Alexy lived and called him through the window - there was no answer. He called three times and, receiving no answer, entered the hut. There the beggar lay dead, his face covered, and in his hands was a parchment covered with writing. Euthymian opened his face and saw that it was shining with an extraordinary light; he wanted to take the manuscript, but could not take it out of the hands of the deceased.
Then he returned to the house and said to the emperor and the pope: “I found the one we are looking for, but I found him already dead.” The king ordered a rich bed to be prepared; They carried the body of the beggar out of the wretched hut, laid it on a bed, and everyone bowed to him.
Then the emperor took the written charter from the hand of the deceased and, amid general silence, began to read it. From it, Euthymian soon learned who the dead man was. In deep sorrow, he fell to the ground, sobbing, and, hugging the body of the deceased, exclaimed: “Oh, my dear child! Why have you made us so sad? How many years did you spend at my house, saw the grief of your parents and did not console them! What will I do now? Should I mourn your death or rejoice at your return?” Aglaida and her daughter-in-law, hearing screams and sobs, wanted to know what had happened. When they heard that the dead beggar was the same Alexy for whom they had mourned for so long, they came out of their seclusion weeping and groaning, pushed through the crowd and hugged the lifeless body. Everyone cried, seeing their deep, inconsolable grief.
The bed on which the deceased lay was placed in the square by order of the king and the pope, and all the inhabitants of Rome came to venerate the holy relics of the man of God, who, out of love for the Lord, sacrificed all the joys of the world and renounced happiness, wealth and greatness in order to serve God with humility and poverty.
Russia has long deeply honored the memory of the great ascetic, whom he knows under the name of the Monk Alexy, the man of God; and the Holy Church sings to him:
“Having risen to virtue and having purified your mind, you have achieved what you desired and the extreme, having adorned your life with dispassion, and received a fair amount of polish with a clear conscience, in prayers, as if you were bodiless, while remaining, you shone like the sun in the world, blessed Alexis.”
Blessed death and revelation of the secret
The hail cannot hide at the top of the mountain while standing. To the celebrant of the Divine Liturgy this coming Sunday in the Cathedral of St. Apostle Peter Pope Innocent I (402-417) and the parishioners A voice emanating from the Throne commanded to find the Man of God departing into Eternity: he should have prayed “for Rome and all her people.” The whole people fell on their faces. Then the believers in the Cathedral of the Apostle Peter prayed to the Lord to reveal to them the man of God - and a voice was heard from the throne: “In the house of Euthymian there is a man of God, look there.” They turned to Euthymian, but he knew nothing. Then the servant told Euthymian about the righteous lifestyle of the saint. Alexia. Euthymian hurried to him, but did not find him alive. The face of the deceased saint shone with light; in his hand he held a scroll tightly grasped. The body of Saint Alexis was carried with due honor and laid on a bed. The Emperor and the Pope knelt, asking the saint to open his hand. The deceased heeded the appeal of those who came to open his palm, and the amazed parents and all those present were able to read what was written. Thus, the truth about him was revealed to the ascetic’s family.
The scroll with the biography of Saint Alexis was read in the church in front of everyone. His father, mother and wife, who had been faithful to him all these years, bowed to his honorable remains with tears.
Warm Alexey - what a holiday
In the 4th–5th centuries, there lived such a pious man in Rome, whose main goal was to acquire the grace of God.
He devoted his entire life to accepting with honor the trials sent down from above and learning humility. With his death, the Christian and Catholic churches found a new saint - God's messenger. His life became widespread in the Orthodox East, and when clergy from the Syrian land, where Alexy spent most of his life, began to come to Rome, the Christian West began to venerate the saint. The relics of St. Alexis are located in Greece, Novgorod and Italy. His life is depicted on frescoes and icons; monasteries, temples and churches are named after him. The people remember the Messenger of God and honor his memory on March 30. At services, the canon to the saint is read, the priest talks about the life of a Roman subject.
Warm Alexey comes when his strength is running out after a long winter, there is not enough food for the cattle, but hope for a new season and a good harvest is alive.
