He shared with Augustine the same errors of youth, the same conversion, the same community life and similar duties as a priest and bishop. He had been born in the same town as Augustine, and was younger than he was. Augustine was his teacher in Carthage. Despite the differences of age and education, friendship was the key to their relationship: "He was very fond of me, because he thought me good and learned, and I was very fond of him because of his natural tendency toward virtue which was really remarkable in one so young." (Confessions 6, 121)
They shared a love of learning, and, according to Augustine, "together with me he was in a state of mental confusion as to what way of life we should take." (Confessions 6, 126-127) In his student days at Carthage, Augustine influenced him to become a Manichean, but did not follow Augustine in subsequently becoming a sceptic. Alypius moved on to Rome, and was a lawyer when they met again in Rome during the year 397. As a lawyer, he was a person of integrity and courage, and was scrupulously honest. There Alypius had a weakness for the circus games, which he gave up immediately after a rebuke from Augustine. The influence of Alypius discouraged Augustine from marriage, as Alypius held that marriage would interfere with the opportunity for Augustine to talk about and to search for wisdom with his friends. It turned out that Augustine ended up making Alypius curious about marriage himself, although he did not take the step. (Confessions 6, 12) Augustine described Alypius as a religious person with a great sense of justice.
In Milan Alypius was drawn in by the public spectacles that featured gladiators, although this was against his better judgment. He was mistakenly accused of crime he did not commit, and was supported by a witness to his good character, and the matter was halted. Alypius earned his reputation for integrity as a junior lawyer by resisting the bribes and threats of a powerful senator. He was more than an observer at the famous "tolle lege" garden incident in Milan, at which Augustine made his formal decision to seek the Christian faith. As told by Augustine in the Confessions, after he read Romans 13:13 from the Epistles of Paul, Alypius took the manuscript from him, and read on further himself to the sentence that advised the weak in faith to accept Christ. That sentence led Alypius immediately to a decision.
Alypius spent the summer months of 386/387 as part of ad hoc lay community established by Augustine at Cassiciacum in the hills outside of Milan. Both men were then on Easter Sunday 387 baptised together in Milan by the bishop, Ambrose. In August 387 Alypius was in the company of Augustine, Monica, Adeodatus (the son of Augustine), Navigius (the brother of Augustine) and Evodius (a North African companion) when they went to Ostia with the intention of sailing back to North Africa to establish a lay community at Thagaste. Alypius was thus present at the sudden death of Monica at Ostia. A year later, Alypius and Augustine then lived a community life at Tagaste from late 388 to 391. The community ended when Augustine was unexpectedly pressed into priesthood at Hippo. Alypius also became a priest. Some time before Augustine became a bishop at Hippo in his own right in the year 396, Alypius was made bishop of Tagaste. He remained there until his death in about the year 430. Some scholars estimate that he died a month before Augustine did.
Years after his conversion, Augustine described Alypius quite simply as "the brother of my heart," and in a letter to the scholar of the Bible, Saint Jerome, written in 394 or 395, he stated that "anyone who knows us both would say that he [Alypius] and I are distinct individuals in body only, not in mind; I mean in our harmony, trust, and friendship." Alypius travelled to Bethlehem twice (probably in the years 395 and 397) and became acquainted with Saint Jerome, with whom Augustine had written communication only. Alypius and Nebridius most probably were the two closest friends that Augustine had throughout most of his life. Although always considered a saint by the Order of Saint Augustine, Alypius was only officially confirmed as a saint of the Church by Pope Clement X on 19th August 1672. On that day the Pope issued a document named Alias a Congregatione, which officially declared Possidius, a companion of both Augustine and Alypius, as a saint.
Additional pageFor another Augnet page about alypius,click here.Links
Alypius. On the website of the Midwest Augustinians, Chicago. http://midwestaugustinians.org/st-alypius
Alypius and Possidius. From the website of the Augustinians in the western United States. http://www.osa-west.org/saintsalypiusandpossidius.html AN1412