St Alexander the Charcoal-Burner

Alexander’s life is short, but it stays in the memory because the whole thing turns on one sharp Christian reversal. The church at Comana needed a bishop, and St Gregory the Wonder-worker came to preside over the choice. The clergy and people proposed candidates of education, standing, and wealth. Gregory answered that the apostles had not been chosen from worldly greatness, and someone mockingly suggested that they might as well appoint Alexander the charcoal-burner. Gregory did not laugh off the insult. He sent for the man. Alexander arrived blackened from his work, poor in appearance, and easy to despise. Yet when Gregory spoke with him privately, he discovered beneath the soot a man of real learning, prudence, and holiness, one who had deliberately embraced a lowly trade after giving up his goods for Christ.

That is the heart of this life. It is not only that appearances deceive. It is that voluntary humility can hide greatness far more completely than pride can ever display it. Gregory therefore proposed Alexander as bishop, the people accepted him, and he was consecrated to the see of Comana. St Gregory of Nyssa, who preserves the story, speaks well of him as bishop and teacher, and his life ended in martyrdom through fire. The lesson is strong without becoming sentimental. God raised up as shepherd a man whom polite society would have overlooked, and the Church remembered him precisely because hidden holiness proved weightier than every respectable candidate in sight.