Feastday: February 23
Death: 403
Hermit and founder of religious houses. He was born in Asia Minor and studied in Constantinople. There he became a convert to Christianity and began a life of retreat and prayer. Alexander remained a hermit for eleven years in Syria and then started missionary work. He founded a monastery in Mesopotamia and another one in Constantinople. He visited Antioch but found opposition there, which forced him to leave Constantinople and go to Gomon, where he founded a monastery. Alexander is believed to have converted Rabulas, who became the bishop of Edessa. Alexander is also credited with initiating the liturgical service in which his four-hundred monks sang the Divine Office continuously day and night. He died in Gomon.
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Saint Hypatius of Bithynia (died ca. 450) was a monk and hermit of the fifth century. A Phrygian, he became a hermit at the age of nineteen in Thrace. He then traveled to Constantinople and then Chalcedon with another hermit named Jason. He became abbot of a hermitage at Chalcedon.
He was an opponent of Nestorianism and sheltered Saint Alexander Akimetes and others whose safety was threatened by the Nestorians.
He is credited with halting a revival of the Olympic games because of their pagan origins.[1]
His feast day is June 17 in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.
References
- Catholic Online: Hypatius
