The Syriac Legend of St. Alexis

This text, which appears to be composed in the 5th or 6th century, in an anonymous recollection of the life of the Syriac father, St. Alexis of Rome. According to this tradition of the saint's life, St. Alexius was a man from Edessa whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome. It recounts that, during the episcopate of Bishop Rabbula, the bishop of Edessa, St. Alexis lived as a beggar and shared the alms he received with other poor of the city. His charity and piety made him famous, and following his death, he was revealed to be a Roman by birth.