Elias

Elias is known only as a recipient of letters from Isidore of Pelusium, addressed variously as "the deacon" and "the monk," placing him within the clerical and ascetic milieu of Pelusium and the eastern Nile Delta in the early-to-mid 5th century. Isidore writes to him in two registers: as a student of Scripture, answering his exegetical questions on the Psalms (61/62 and 111/112 LXX), Matthew 5:28, and Jeremiah 2:18; and as a soul needing correction, warning him sternly against the lust of the eyes, urging him not to "run back to wickedness" after embracing the ascetic life, and reproving him for cowardice before the bullying authority of a Cappadocian magistrate. The relationship reads as that of an elder spiritual director instructing and chastising a junior cleric or monk, who also serves as a teacher himself (Isidore reminds him that words without corresponding deeds turn into reproach). Beyond what these letters reveal, Elias is otherwise unattested.