23 February / 8 March

Venerable Alexander, founder of the "Non-sleeping Ones" Monastery, was born in Asia and was educated in Constantinople. For a time, he was in the military service, but sensing a call to a different kind of service, he left the world and was tonsured into monasticism at one of the desert monasteries near Antioch, under the direction of Abbot Elias. Ascending step by step up the path of monastic spiritual struggles, he received the abbot’s blessing to live as a desert dweller. The Venerable One took up his struggle alone in the desert, with the Holy Gospels, the only thing he took with him. Later the Lord called him to preach to the pagans. He converted to the Faith the local city-head Rabbul, who later prospered in the service of the Church, was made worthy of the priesthood, and for 30 years was ruling bishop of the city of Edessa.

Finally, Venerable St. Alexander settled down not far from the Euphrates River. Monks, attracted by the loftiness of his ascetic prayer and by the wealth of his religious experience, gathered around him. A monastery composed of up to 400 monks came into being. Then, in his devotion to prayer, the holy abbot decided to arrange it so that the Lord should be praised without ceasing, day and night. For three years, the Venerable Abba prayed that God reveal to him whether it was pleasing to Him that such a monastic rule be established. After a revelation from God, he introduced into the monastery the following practice: he divided the monks into 24 watches of prayer. Changing shifts each hour, two choirs [antiphonally] sang the Holy Psalms day and night, except when Divine Services were served in the church. This practice was the origin for their being called a "monastery of the non-sleeping ones, "for the ascetics raised up their voices in chant to God without ceasing.

St. Alexander guided the monastery near the Euphrates for twenty years. Later, having left his disciple, the experienced Elder Trophimus, as abbot, he and a select number of monastics departed for the towns bordering Persia , to preach the Gospel and convert people to the spiritual life. Upon reaching Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire , he established there as well a monastery with his beloved rule of “non-sleeping ones.” The Venerable Abba reposed at a very old age, after fifty years of continuous monastic spiritual struggles. The date of his translation [to life eternal] is given as the year 430.