4th–5th century
Venerable Isidore of Pelusium
An Egyptian monk (c. 360–440) who lived as an ascetic near Pelusium and left a vast body of letters on theological and spiritual teaching.
Biography
Isidore was born in Egypt around 360, a relative of the Patriarchs of Alexandria Theophilus and Cyril I. He received an excellent theological education and at first taught as a catechist in the church of Alexandria.
Seeking quiet for the study of Scripture, he withdrew to a monastery on Mount Pelusium — from which he took the name "of Pelusium" — where he became a priest and later abbot. His reputation as an interpreter of difficult scriptural passages made him widely respected in the Church, especially at the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431.
He left numerous treatises and letters, of which 2,012 survive, in which he counselled clergy and rulers and explained the Scriptures. He died peacefully in 440.