Out-of-This-World Diamond-Studded Rock Just Got Even Weirder

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. Hypatia (360?-415) is an interesting person

She was a Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician, with a reputation as a brilliant teacher. She got into trouble because the Christian Patriarch of Alexandria, Cyril, was having a political fight with the Roman Prefect, Orestes. Hypatia sided with Orestes, and a mob incited by a fanatical monk attacked her and literally tore her to pieces. Cyril almost certainly had some knowledge of what was going to take place, but did nothing.

Cyril was a man of violent passions and hatreds, and loathed Hypatia. Cyril has been declared a saint, and whenever I hear the phrase "the patience of a saint", I think of him.