some locality an obligatory celebration is assigned to that day. The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates St Alexius on 17 March. Five Byzantine Emperors, four Emperors of Trebizond and numerous other eastern European and Russian personalities have borne his name (see Alexius). There are numerous churches bearing his name in Greece, Russia, and in other Orthodox countries. Saint Alexius is well known to the region of the north Peloponnese due to his skull being kept in the monastery of Agia Lavra. Churches dedicated to St. Alexius are also found in Aigio and Patras. Relics Relics of Saint Alexius are found in some churches and monasteries in Greece, including the Esphigmenou monastery of Mount Athos and the Dormition of Theotokos Monastery, Boeotia. In Russia, relics of St Alexius are kept in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg. In Cyprus, relics are kept in the Kykkos Monastery. The most precious relic is a large part of the honorable skull of the Saint, which is kept in the monastery of Agia Lavra near Kalavrita, Greece. According to the Ktetorikon (monastic foundation codex) of the monastery, the honorable skull was donated to the monastery by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos in 1398 (this is also the inscription on the reliquary). References to St Alexius Saint Alexis Parish and School, located in Wexford, Pennsylvania, is named for St Alexius. Stefano Landi wrote an opera about him (1632). Camilla de Rossi wrote an oratorio about him (1710). Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a secular cantata about him. Alexander Radishchev, in his Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow (1790), refers to the story of St Alexis as sung by a blind soldier begging in Klin, near Moscow. Mikhail Kuzmin wrote a play ("Komediia o Aleksee cheloveke bozhyem", "Comedy about Alexis, the Man of God") about the life of St. Alexis. In 1769, San Elijo Lagoon and beach in San Diego County, California were named San Alejo by the Portola Expedition for Saint Alexius. The spelling changed in later years to Elijo. Il Sant'Alessio, an opera in three acts composed by Stefano Landi in 1631 with a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi St Alexius is also the Patron Saint of the religious institute known as the Alexians and of the Greek town of Kalavryta. The tale of St Alexius has parallels with that of The Prodigal Son, as told in the biblical Book of Luke. As it appears in Legenda aurea