Feast Day: November 26th
The Life of Saint Alypius: He was ferociously attacked by demons jealous of his progress. When they began hurling stones at him, he asked his mother, who lived at the foot of the pillar, for an axe, intending to show them that soldiers of Christ rate their attacks no more than juvenile insults. Throwing the roof that sheltered him to the ground, he faced without protection the hail of stones…
+
Prayers
Apolytikion – Tone 1: Thou becamest a pillar of patience and didst emulate the Forefathers, O Righteous one: Job in his sufferings, Joseph in temptations, and the life of the bodiless while in the body, O Alypius, Our Righteous Father, intercede with Christ God that our Souls be saved.
Kontakion – Tone 4: Today the Church doth Glorify and Hymn thee, O Alypius, as a foundation of virtues and comeliness of the Ascetics and the Monks. By thy Prayers, as the namesake of true freedom from sorrow, free from their grievous sins all them that praise and honour thy struggles and deeds of excellence.
Undaunted, the Saint fixed on a demon-haunted spot, full of old tombs and pagan sanctuaries that everyone kept well away from. His relatives tried in vain to dissuade him from climbing up one of the derelict monuments on which was a pillar surmounted by the statue of a fabulous animal, half bull, half lion. “Here is my resting place!” he exclaimed, and went back to the town to fetch a Cross and a crowbar. He dislodged the statue and threw it to the ground, setting up the Life-Giving Cross in its place, determined henceforth to rout the demons in their own lair.
+
He was ferociously attacked by demons jealous of his progress. When they began hurling stones at him, he asked his mother, who lived at the foot of the pillar, for an axe, intending to show them that soldiers of Christ rate their attacks no more than juvenile insults. Throwing the roof that sheltered him to the ground, he faced without protection the hail of stones…
+
Set in the sight of all like a lamp on its stand, the Saint gave light to all by his Virtues… Crowds of people made haste to the pillar, asking for the Stylite’s intercession… It was wonderful to hear the choir of Virgins and that of the Monks Chanting the praises of God responsively seven times a day, and to behold the Saint, that Earthly Angel and Heavenly man standing between the two, joining his voice to theirs and raising his hands to the Triune God in intercession for the salvation of the world.
Icons
