CONCERNING ST. ALEXANDER, MARTYR, IN PANNONIA.
CommentaryAlexander, Martyr in Pannonia (Saint)
[1] Many bearing the name Alexander obtained the crown of martyrdom, and have caused some confusion in the sacred records. Sometimes one and the same person, although found inscribed in the calendars on different days, as if he were distinct from himself. Sometimes one and the same is established when in reality there were several, to be referred to different days: which last we plainly judge to have happened to this St. Alexander. Certainly the St. Alexander whom we have proposed in the title as a Martyr who suffered in Pannonia, Memory in the sacred calendars: all the exemplars of Usuard assign to this day, both handwritten -- and those very many and of the best reliability -- and those subsequently printed, among which the older ones published at Luebeck, Paris, and Cologne, and others prepared by Bellinus, Greven, and Molanus. With these agree the ancient manuscript martyrologies, the Barberini, Vallicellian, Vatican of the Church of St. Peter, Brussels of St. Gudula, Trier of St. Maximin, Liege of St. Lawrence under the name of Ado, and the Florarium of the Saints: likewise Maurolycus and Galesinius, everywhere in these words: "In Pannonia, St. Alexander the Martyr." Canisius in the German Martyrology interprets this as Hungary. The calendar of the ancient Breviary of Evora, with the place omitted, mentions only "St. Alexander the Martyr." All of which are understood of one and the same Martyr.
[2] But because the Acts of this Saint are lacking, including the kind and time of martyrdom, another has been joined to him, and two Martyrs have been conflated into one and the same man: The Acts of another Alexander wrongly attributed to this one. of whom one, under the Emperor Maximian, after various torments endured, completed his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head: but in Thrace, far from Pannonia, and not on March 27 but on May 13: on which day the Greeks celebrate him in all their Menaia, Menologia, and Synaxaria, and following their example very many Latins: and the Acts of his martyrdom, rendered into Latin from Greek, were published by Lipomanus and Surius, and we shall illuminate them in due course. Meanwhile, for this day, with Usuard cited in the Notes, the following is read in the present Roman Martyrology: "At Drizipara in Pannonia, St. Alexander the soldier, who under the Emperor Maximian, after overcoming many contests for Christ and performing many miracles, completed his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head." Drizipara is, according to Ptolemy, book 3, chapter 11, an ancient and episcopal city of Thrace between Adrianople and the Propontis on the river Arsus, no more to be ascribed to Pannonia than our own Antwerp, in which we write these things, should be included in Spain, Italy, or even Pannonia itself. The cult of St. Alexander the Martyr was celebrated at Drizipara on account of a church erected there in his honor, but burned by the barbarian soldiers of the Chagan, King of the Avars, in the year 600, when his sacred body, which was preserved there with the highest veneration, was also stripped of its silver adornment, as can be read in the Chronography of Theophanes, the History of Anastasius the Librarian, and the Miscella of Paul the Deacon, cited in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology: which would be brought forth more fully on May 13. When, however, St. Alexander suffered in Pannonia, and by what kind of torment the Martyr perished, is not clear.