Martyr Alexander the soldier suffered for Christ together with the holy Martyr Antonina.
Martyr Alexander was one of the soldiers whom the governor Festus sent to a house of prostitution in order to defile the martyr Antonina, who had been thrown there for confessing Christ. However, the Lord inspired Alexander to save the saint. Covered with his cloak, Antonina secretly left the house, while he remained there in her place. When the soldiers did not find the martyr Antonina, they seized Alexander and brought him to trial. By the governor’s order he was subjected to tortures, and Antonina was to be sought out. But the holy martyr, by the Lord’s command, came of her own accord to Festus’ court.
After the tortures, Saint Alexander and Saint Antonina had their hands cut off; they were thrown into a pit with blazing fire, and then the pit was covered with earth. Thus the holy sufferers committed their souls into the hands of God. For his wicked deed the governor Festus was terribly punished by God: a demon entered into him and tormented him for seven days, after which the governor lost his life.
The holy martyrs Alexander and Antonina suffered in the year 313.
In the Prologues their commemoration is placed on June 10. The relics of the saints were transferred to Constantinople and laid in the Monastery of Maximus.
