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Monday 23 March 2015

On Alexandras Times Three

Last week, I missed the feast day of the Defender of Humanity, St. Alexandra, wife of Diocletian, who attempted to spare the lives of the Christians. but failed. Her own husband demanded her death in 303. (See my series on February 24th in the list). Some have her feast day as April 23rd or the 24th, and some on March 20th.

A text written on the martyrdom of St. George mentions her as Empress and defender of George.


Another Alexandra, a single woman, whose feast day is September 15th, was a hermit who spun flax, prayed and meditated all day, being fed by an unknown woman. She lived a life of reparation and penance.

A third is Blessed Alexandrina of Balazar, Portugal, a real victim soul. Here is a bit from St. John Paul II's homily from her beatification Mass on April 25, 2004.

"Do you love me?", Jesus asks Simon Peter, who replies: "Yes Lord, you know that I love you". The life of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa can be summarized in this dialogue of love. Permeated and burning with this anxiety of love, she wished to deny nothing to her Saviour. With a strong will, she accepted everything to demonstrate her love for him. A "spouse of blood", she relived mystically Christ's passion and offered herself as a victim for sinners, receiving strength from the Eucharist: this became her only source of nourishment for the final 13 years of her life.
With the example of Blessed Alexandrina, expressed in the trilogy "suffer, love, make reparation", Christians are able to discover the stimulus and motivation to make "noble" all that is painful and sad in life through the greatest evidence of love: sacrificing one's life for the beloved. 

Her feast day is October 13th.