From the Prologue of Ochrid
The ways by which God leads those who desire to please Him and fulfill His law are manifold. In the time of Emperor Honorius there lived in Rome a high imperial dignitary named Euphemianus, a man of great distinction and great wealth. Both he and his wife Aglaïda led a life pleasing to God. Though he was wealthy, Euphemianus sat down at table only once a day, and that after the setting of the sun. They had an only son, this Alexius, who when he came of age was compelled to marry. But that very same night he abandoned not only his wife but his father's house, boarded a ship, and came to the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia, where there was the famous image of the Lord Jesus sent by the Lord Himself to King Abgar. After venerating that image, Alexius put on the clothing of a beggar and lived as a beggar for seventeen years in that city, praying unceasingly to God in the porch of the church of the Most Holy Theotokos. When he became known there as a man pleasing to God, he feared human glory and departed, boarded a ship to go to Laodicea, but by God's Providence the ship was carried off course and sailed all the way to Rome. Taking this as the finger of God, Alexius resolved to go to his father's house and, unknown, to continue his life and ascetic labor there. His father did not recognize him, but out of compassion allowed him to live in a small room in his courtyard. There Alexius spent another seventeen years, living on bread and water alone. Abused by the servants in various ways, he endured everything to the end. And when his end drew near, he wrote a document, clasped it in his hands, lay down, and breathed his last on March 17, 411. Then there was a revelation in the church of the Holy Apostles in the form of a voice, which spoke in the presence of the emperor and the patriarch: seek the man of God. Shortly afterward it was revealed that this man of God was in the house of Euphemianus. The emperor came with the pope and the whole retinue to the house of Euphemianus, and after lengthy inquiry learned that the beggar was this man of God. When they entered his room, they found him dead, yet with his face as bright as the sun. From that document his parents learned that he was their son Alexius, and his bride — who had lived thirty-four years without him — learned that he was her husband; and immeasurable grief and anguish seized them all. But afterward they were comforted, seeing how the Lord had glorified His servant. For many sick persons were healed by touching his body, and fragrant myrrh flowed from his body. His body was buried in a casket of marble and emerald. His head is kept at the Holy Lavra on the Peloponnese.
