Alypius (correspondent of Isidore of Pelusium)

Alypius is known only as a recipient of letters from Isidore of Pelusium, the ascetic and biblical commentator active in the eastern Nile Delta of Egypt in the early-to-mid 5th century. Two of the surviving letters address him as bishop, and across the correspondence Isidore answers his persistent scriptural questions, often prompted by a second letter when Alypius pressed for an explanation: why the leper and the man with a flux were barred from the sacred precincts, the grammar of Sarah's words about nursing in Genesis, the meaning of the cup of cold water in Matthew, and how the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Isidore also writes to him more pastorally, rebuking the love of money, warning against envy, and urging that virtue be referred to divine help rather than self-confidence, once playing on the meaning of his name (alypos, free from grief). Beyond his role as Isidore's correspondent and an apparent bishop given to inquiring after the senses of Scripture, Alypius is otherwise unattested.