The holy relic will be open for worship at the monastery from March 29 into April 1, every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. On April 2, the head will be removed to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow's principal shrine, to be there into the next night, and then return to Greece.
Born into a pious patrician family in Rome, in the mid-4th century, Alexius escaped from home quite a young man, leaving his parents and bride, to take up religious asceticism. After years of wanderings and mystical contemplation, he came back unrecognized to get alms and meals with the beggars who were flocking to his charitable parental home. Servants made the meek pilgrim a laughing-stock. He withstood their scoffing for seventeen years, and disclosed his identity only on his deathbed to his disconsolate wife, father and mother.
Alexius died March 30, 411. His sanctity and spiritual grandeur were miraculously revealed to the Emperor, the Bishop of Rome and the congregation during liturgy that day. The modest ascetic came down to the Christian tradition as Man of God. The Church commemorates him, March 30.
"The Life of Alexius the Man of God", an inspired story of spiritual progress and self-abnegation, was among the most popular books in medieval Russia.
Many miraculous healings by St. Alexius' relics have been registered.
The saint's head is preserved at the Great Laura-renowned monastery, founded in 961, in the Peloponnesian town of Kalabreta. It has never left the Laura walls since Emperor Emanuel Palaeologus made it a gift to the monastery, in 1398.
The Novospassky Monastery will serve a commemorative liturgy in honor of St. Alexius, March 30. Patriarch Alexis II will serve another at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, April 3.
