السيرة
Lives of the Saints and Martyrs in the Coptic Orthodox Church
The Martyr Anba Alexander the Roman, the Bishop
He was of noble lineage and a lover of worship. He was ordained bishop over Rome while still in his thirtieth year, after the repose of Saint Evaristus, in the days of Trajan.
**With Hermes, Governor of Rome**
Many were converted to Christianity at his hands, among them Hermes, governor of Rome, and his wife. For it is said that he had a beloved only son who fell gravely ill, and the physicians were at a loss concerning his case. The governor turned to the gods, carrying his son from one idol to another to no avail, and at last the boy died. When the nurse saw the severity of the mother's grief over him, she said to her, "Had you presented him to Bishop Alexander, he would have prayed for him and he would have been healed." The mother gazed at her with a harsh look and said to her, "If this were true, why has he not opened your eyes? Go and ask him, and if he opens your eyes, I will carry the boy to him."
In faith the nurse set off to where the bishop was, and asked him to pray for her, that the Lord might open her eyes. When he had prayed over her and signed her with the sign of the Cross, he opened her eyes in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At once she hurried to her master's house and took up the boy and came in haste to the bishop, saying to him, "Pray that God may grant life to this boy and take away my sight from me, so that I may be blind as I was." But he said to her, "Believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who is Ruler of all, will raise the boy from death without your losing the sight that you received by the bounty of the Lord." The bishop prayed to the Lord and took hold of the boy's hand, and he arose. The boy went off to his father, who was seized with astonishment, while his mother embraced him with joy unspeakable...
and the governor was baptized, together with his family and all his servants.
The governor and his wife practiced the virtuous life in the Lord, renouncing all things; they freed their slaves, distributed their wealth to the poor, devoted themselves to the worship of God, and became a blessing to many in Rome.
Trajan heard the news and appointed Aurelian as governor in place of Hermes. The new governor was exceedingly violent in his persecution of the Christians; he ordered the bishop to be imprisoned, together with the two priests Eventius and Theodulus, while Hermes the former governor he handed over to his friend Quirinus, that he might turn him back from the faith by kindness and persuasion.
Hermes began to disclose to his friend the truth of the Christian faith and the sublimity of God's work with them. Quirinus said to him, "I want a sign that I may see for myself: I will shut you up in the prison and see whether Alexander can come to you without the doors being opened."
And indeed he agreed with the new governor, securely shut the doors of the prison in which the bishop was, and that in which Hermes was, and tightened the guard. By night the bishop prayed to God, who sent His angel in the form of a child, who led him while the doors were shut, and brought him in to where Hermes was.
In the morning, when Quirinus saw this thing, he was amazed, and believed in the Lord Christ, he and his daughter and many with him.
Aurelian the governor tortured Quirinus and Hermes until they were martyred, and then he tortured the bishop and the two priests and struck off their heads.
The Greek Church celebrates the martyrdom of the bishop and the two priests on the 3rd of May, and the Latin Church on the 4th of May