From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 26th - St. Alexander of Alexandria, Bishop   
      
   St. Alexander was made Patriarch of Alexandria in 313. He was a disciple of   
   the Patriarch of Alexandria St. Peter the Martyr, and had heard the warnings   
   the great Bishop made in prison about the deacon Arius. St. Alexander led an   
   untiring battle against this heretic, preparing the way for St. Athanasius.   
      
   Arius was a tall man of a grave imposing appearance. He attracted confidence   
   by his amiable manner and agreeable conversation. He lived austerely,   
   assumed a penitent air, and showed an apparent zeal for religion. With a   
   broad but superficial knowledge of profane literature and the ecclesiastical   
   sciences, he was a subtle and persuasive dialectician. However, under this   
   exterior show of virtue was a man of melancholy, turbulence, ambition and a   
   taste for novelties. After he was ordained priest and charged with teaching   
   Scriptures, he could not contain his vanity and titled himself illustrious.   
   After the death of St. Achillas, Bishop of Alexandria, Arius aspired to his   
   see. When St. Alexander was chosen for it, Arius became his enemy. It was   
   about this time that Arius began to teach his bad doctrine and recruit   
   followers.   
      
   St. Alexander, concerned about the spreading of this heresy and finding   
   Arius obstinate and incorrigible, excommunicated him from the Diocese of   
   Alexandria. The heretic went to Palestine where he received the support of   
   various bishops, especially Eusebius of Nicomedia. There he began a campaign   
   of intrigues against his adversaries.   
      
   The Council of Nicaea in 325 condemned Arius and his doctrines. In that   
   famous assembly of Bishops, one of the high luminaries was St. Alexander.   
   St. Athanasius, who had accompanied St. Alexander, was also present as a   
   deacon. St. Alexander returned to Alexandria, where he died several years   
   later, after naming St. Athanasius as his successor. Having dedicated his   
   life to gloriously fighting in defense of the Church, he delivered his soul   
   to the Lord in 328.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   It is noteworthy that this selection speaks more about Arius than St.   
   Alexander. The description of the heresiarch is well done, because all the   
   psychological facets are coherent and portray the typical hypocrite of that   
   time who pretended to be a pious religious.   
      
   Today many modern people have a favorable view of a Bishop with a modern   
   car, perhaps a sports car, or a Bishop who takes on a communist look in   
   order to give the impression that he is favorable to the poor. In that time   
   the heretics used to assume conservative airs. Arius was a tall figure with   
   an imposing air - I am reminded of some Eastern schismatic priests with   
   their strong physiques, beards, vigorous airs, and those hard black hats.   
   Further, he had an amiable presence, and was well versed in Scriptures and   
   the sacred sciences. But deep down he was steaming with ambition and   
   excesses. Here you see the hypocrite. In epochs when good prevails, the   
   hypocritical pays tribute to good.   
      
   This appearance of sanctity made the combat of St. Alexander against Arius   
   more difficult. Arius fooled many people. We will see this type of evil with   
   the Antichrist, who will also appear to be a saint. In such cases, the one   
   who attacks such pseudo-saints look like a bad man. This resource to   
   hypocrisy inverts everything: the evil looks good and vice-versa. So, many   
   people would have thought that St. Alexander was bad because he was   
   attacking Arius, which made for a very difficult fight. St. Alexander had to   
   fight hard to condemn Arius and expel him from Alexandria. Arius ended by   
   becoming Archbishop of Constantinople. He died during a procession going to   
   the Cathedral supposedly to be readmitted to communion to the Church. It was   
   an extraordinary death where his stomach exploded, and his intestines and   
   organs spilled out.   
      
   St. Alexander was the opposite of Arius. He had been preceded by St.   
   Achillas and his secretary was St. Athanasius. The great St. Athanasius was   
   so anti-Arian that even when all the other Bishops and even a Pope became   
   Arians, he stood alone defending orthodoxy. The persecution he suffered was   
   so difficult that for a while he had to hide himself in the sepulcher of his   
   parents and live there.   
      
   So we can see the growing chain of saints: St Achillas who was succeeded by   
   St. Alexander, who was more than the former. Then St. Alexander was   
   succeeded by St. Athanasius, who was greater still in the fight against   
   Arianism. We can see that Divine Providence prepared a kind of genealogy of   
   saints in the See of Alexandria that was completed with the incomparable St.   
   Athanasius who gave the Church the final victory against Arianism.   
      
   These actions of Divine Providence have an extraordinary architectonic   
   beauty, which is the most beautiful thing in History. God so arranges that   
   one saint should succeed another, one good movement generates another. Even   
   if at times it can appear that the good cause is defeated, it ends as   
   victorious through the prayers and intercession of Our Lady.   
      
   We can learn a good lesson from the life of St. Alexander and the fight   
   against Arianism. That is, we should not be fooled by the appearance of   
   sanctity of many religious progressivists and their success in some pious   
   milieus. Also, we should not become discouraged when these same people call   
   us proud and lacking charity because we maintain a position consistent with   
   Catholic principles. This kind of accusation should not bother us. Just as   
   Our Lady made the apostolate of St. Achillas, St. Alexander and St.   
   Athanasius fruitful amidst the difficult battles and persecution the good   
   cause suffered, so also will she make our apostolate grow, and give us the   
   necessary means to establish her Reign. Let us ask St. Alexander to help us   
   in this fight   
      
      
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   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. -Lk. 14:11   
      
   "Here is one of the best means to acquire humility: fix well in mind this   
   maxim: One is as much as he is in the sight of God, and no more"   
   -Thomas a Kempis   
      
   St. Francis made a beginning of sanctity by trampling underfoot human   
   respect; for he had thoroughly penetrated the truth of this holy maxim which   
   he often revolved in his mind.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The fear of the Lord is the lesson of wisdom: and humility goeth before   
   glory. (Proverbs 15:33)   
      
      
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   Glory Be To Jesus and Mary   
      
   A letter written by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the City of Messina where St.   
   Paul, the Apostle preached the gospel, which has been preserved in the   
   Reliquary of the great altar.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)