Who Were: the Alexian Brothers

When plague came to a small village or a large city, panic ensued.  The residents often fled, leaving the dead or dying, including even family members, to look after themselves or not.  Or, in other instances, the dead and dying were taken outside the city or town, and left to fend for themselves, or not.  Someone had to comfort the dying and give them the consolations of religion.  And someone had to dig the graves, cart off and bury the dead.  Since these people were risking contagion and death themselves, there were few volunteers, even among monastics and clergy, who often faced high mortality within their own communities because their work brought them in constant contact with the sick.

The Alexians began as the Beghards in 12th century Flanders, part of what is now Belgium.  They were non-monastic laymen who followed a simple way of life without living in religious communities.  Debate exists as to whether the term Beghard meant they were beggars or not.  However, they entered their own during the plague epidemics of the 14th century.  While others ran away from or isolated plague victims and refused to handle the corpses, these men would comfort the abandoned dying, take away the dead bodies and bury them.  Because they could not circulate among others while performing this contagious duty, they took to dwelling in small communities or cells, hence another name for them, Cellites.  Church authorities saw the need to bring this group under control of the Church by creating them a religious order under the Augustinian Rule and dedicated to St. Alexius of Rome, who had performed a similar service during epidemics in ancient times. 

The work of the Alexians was more concentrated in Europe, but they were known in England.  Their habit of murmuring prayers as they went about their work gave them a nickname, Lollards, that would later be applied in a derisive sense to early reformers who followed John Wycliffe's teachings.  The Alexian Brothers still exist today as a religious order, dedicated to charities centered around hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, acute care centers and the like.