Pope Alexander I

Pope Alexander I (Greek: Αλέξανδρος, died around 115) served as bishop of Rome from roughly 108/109 to 116/119, according to the 2012 Annuario Pontificio. Some accounts claim he was martyred under Emperor Trajan or Hadrian.

The Liber Pontificalis credits Alexander with inserting the narrative of the Last Supper (the Qui pridie) into the Mass. However, a 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia article by Thomas Shahan, supported by both Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholic scholars, dismisses this tradition as inaccurate. They see it as a late 5th-century invention by the Liber Pontificalis to suggest that early popes governed by decree. His pontificate’s exact dates are disputed, but he likely took office around 108/109 and died about ten years later, around 118/119.

He is also said to have introduced the use of blessed water mixed with salt to purify Christian homes from evil, and the practice of mixing water with sacramental wine. Many sources consider these attributions unlikely, though Alexander may have played a real role in Rome’s early liturgical and administrative development.

A later legend holds that under Emperor Hadrian, Alexander miraculously converted the Roman governor Hermes, along with his entire household of 1,500 people. His supposed jailer, Quirinus of Neuss, and Quirinus’s daughter Balbina of Rome were also among his converts. Alexander is said to have seen a vision of the infant Jesus, and his remains were reportedly moved to Freising, Bavaria, in 834.

Supposed identification with a martyr

Some editions of the Roman Missal identified Pope Alexander I with a martyr commemorated on 3 May alongside Eventius and Theodulus (said to be his priests). But nothing is known of these three beyond their names and that they were martyred and buried at the seventh milestone of the Via Nomentana on 3 May. Pope John XXIII’s 1960 calendar revision dropped any papal identification, listing them simply as “Saints Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus Martyrs,” as in the 1570 Tridentine calendar. The Roman Martyrology lists them as Eventius, Alexander, and Theodulus, following the order in historical documents.