This Roman connection stemmed from an earlier Syriac legend, which recounted that, during the episcopate of Bishop Rabbula (412–435), a "Man of God", who lived in Edessa, Mesopotamia as a beggar and shared the alms he received with other poor people, was found to be a native of Rome after his death.

[1] The Greek version of his legend made Alexius the only son of Euphemianus, a wealthy Christian Roman of the senatorial class.

Disguised as a beggar, he lived near Edessa in Syria, accepting alms even from his own household slaves, who had been sent to look for him; they did not recognize him[2] until a miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later this image was called Madonna of St Alexius) singled him out as a "Man of God" (Greek: Ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ).

Fleeing the resultant notoriety, he returned to Rome, so changed that his parents did not recognize him, but as good Christians took him in and sheltered him for seventeen years, which he spent in a dark cubbyhole beneath the stairs, praying and teaching catechism to children.

[2] After his death, his family found a note on his body which told them who he was and how he had lived his life of penance from the day of his wedding, for the love of God.

Sergius erected beside the church a monastery for Greek and Latin monks, soon made famous for the austere life of its inmates.

"[6] While the Catholic Church continues to recognize St Alexius as a saint, his feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969.

[7] Johann Peter Kirsch remarked: "Perhaps the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic at Edessa lived the life of a beggar and was later venerated as a saint.