Alexander

Saint Alexander, commemorated on 30 November, is according to tradition bishop of Methymna on Lesbos, perhaps the first bishop of that metropolis, and is said to have taken part in the First Ecumenical Council of 325. It is said that he founded a monastery in the territory of the community of Lafiona, where he spent the last years of his life. Our register treats him as a martyr in the Serbian calendar, but the Greek source describes a hierarch.

At some distance from the village, near ruins supposed to be the saint's monastery, there is a large stone sarcophagus in which he is believed to have been buried. On the sarcophagus there is an inscription, the reading of which is disputed. According to tradition, even the Turkish inhabitants of Lafiona regarded the sarcophagus as the tomb of "Iskender Baba", that is, Father Alexander. Although we have no biographical or other historical information, we have the tradition of the Church, the testimony of the sarcophagus, which shows that in it was buried "the herald of the Trinity", that is, a bishop who preached Christ, the chapels in the district of Methymna bearing the name of Saint Alexander, and the service sung on the day of his feast.