Saint Alypios the Kionite
Date of celebration: 26/11
Saint Alypius was from Adrianople in Paphlagonia and lived in the 6th century AD. Tradition states that, when Alypios was born, his mother saw in a dream that she was holding a white lamb with three lighted lamps on its horns, which signified the virtues the child would have.
His parents gave Alypios a Christian upbringing, which in his person brought fruits a hundredfold. He had a large fortune, which he spent on the poor and suffering in his area. Because it was his pleasure to fulfill the law of God, which exhorts Christians to be “sympathetic, friendly, merciful, generous” (1st letter of Peter, 3.8). That is, to sympathize and share in the sorrows of their brothers, to love their fellow human beings like brothers, to have a painful and tender heart and to be caring and noble.
Alypios, after being penniless, retired to the desert, where he led an ascetic life. Information states that he stayed on a pole for 50 (according to others 53 or 66) years for exercise and under various weather conditions.
The reputation of his virtue brought other souls to Alypius who were seeking a peaceful refuge. To these people he was a loving spiritual father, guiding them with his advice and supporting them with his example.
He died peacefully in the year 608 AD, after having lived 100 years, according to others 120. And his Synaxis is celebrated “in his lonesome house near the Hippodrome”, according to the Paris Code 1594.
