Alypius the Stylite

Alypius the Stylite (Ancient Greek: Ἀλύπιος ὁ Στυλίτης) was a seventh-century ascetic saint.

She sent her son to be educated by the bishop Theodore, gave all of her livelihood to the poor, and herself became a deaconess and lived an ascetic life.

[1] Alypius yearned to practice the life of a hermit, but Bishop Theodore would not give him permission to do so.

Alypius built a church in honour of the great martyr Euphemia on the site of a dilapidated pagan temple.

Herbert Thurston says of the Stylites that they did, in an age of terrible corruption and social decadence, impress the need of penance more than anything else could have done upon the minds and imagination of Eastern Christians.

Alypius the Stylite by Emmanuel Tzanes
Alypius the Stylite depicted in the 11th century Menologion of Basil II .