Isidore of Pelusium

Isidore of Pelusium (died c. 450), an Egyptian abbot and ascetic, left some two thousand short letters rich in biblical and moral comment. Excerpted in the catenae, his crisp exegetical notes pass into later Gospel compilations.

From his monastery near Pelusium in Egypt, Isidore wrote some two thousand brief letters packed with biblical, moral, and doctrinal counsel. Crisp and quotable, his notes on disputed passages were widely excerpted in the catenae, where they continue to circulate as concise patristic comment on the text of Scripture.

Their brevity made them ideal for the catenae, and through that channel his judicious comments on contested verses reached the medieval church and, beyond it, the modern reader of patristic exposition.