On the heights of Rome’s Aventine Hill, between the basilica churches of Sant’Anselmo and Santa Sabina and near to the gated grounds of the Knights of Malta, is the basilica called Sant’Alessio, whose feast is commemorated in the traditional Roman calendar on July 17.
Once upon a time, in the late 4th or early 5th centuries, a wealthy man with a great house on the prestigious Aventine had a son who travelled to the Greek east to live a pious and ascetic life. After many years the son, Alexius, returned to Rome and his father’s house. They didn’t recognise him. He determined to live incognito as a servant and beggar under a staircase of his own family home. After he died, they discovered who he really was.
