At the abbey school of Maria Einsiedeln in Switzerland, where Alexander when fourteen years old began his higher studies, he was influenced by the poet and scholar Gall Morel.

Some of his poetry was written for special occasions, including Festspiel zur Calderonfeier (1881), which appeared first in the Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, but was soon, owing to repeated requests, published in book form with a brief biography of the Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca.

He also translated foreign poetry, for instance, in 1884, an Icelandic poem of the fourteenth century to the Virgin Mary, Die Lilie.

In addition he published two works as expressions of gratitude and religious piety: Erinnerungen an Bischof Greith (1884), and Gallus Jakob Baumgartner (1892).

Two years previously he had issued the unfinished work of his father, Die Geschichte des Kantons St. Gallen, in three volumes.