Al'van (Heb. Alvan , "jtb?, tall; Sept. FaiXafi), the first named of the five sons of Shobal the Horite, of Mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi, 23) ; called less correctly Alian (Heb. Alyan, '^", Sept. TwXo/x) in the par- allel passage (1 Chron.V 40). B.C. cir. 1927.
Alvarez of Cordova, (St.), was born at Cor- dova ; a scion of the ancient house of the dukes of Cordova. He took the habit of the Dominicans in the convent of St. Paul, at Cordova, in 1308. Far from being satisfied with closely adhering to the rule of his order, he added to the strictness of it whatever was not actually forbidden. To the hair shirt he add- ed commonly a chain of iron round his bod}' ; his fasts were rigorous, his watchings long, and his self-mortifi- cation continual ; and he went throughout Spain, and even into Italy, proclaiming the Gospel (as he under- stood it) with the fervor of an apostle. He afterward proceeded to the Holy Land, and upon his return was selected first by Catherine, the wife of King Henry II, of Castile, and afterward by her son John II, to be their confessor. Alvarez, however, pined to be re-
leased from the worldly pomp and splendor of a court, and obtained permission to depart, for the purpose of building a new convent according to his own views and plan. This he did upon a mountain a short distance from Cordova, and gave to the new sanctuary the name of Scala call. He died Feb. 19, 1420. His tomb became a great place of resort to persons of all ranks, even to ecclesiastics and bishops. Benedict XIV au- thorized the worship of this saint (!), and extended the worship to the whole order of St. Dominic. His fes- tival is held on the 19th of February. — Touron, Hist. of Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Dominic ; Lan- don, Eccl. Diet. s. v.
Alvarez, Diego (Jesuit), born at Toledo, 1560; after finishing his studies he went to Peru, and there became provincial of his order, which office he held until his death in 1620. A complete edition of his works was published under the title, Opera recognita et nunc pri- mum in Germania cdita (Mogunt. 1614-19, 3 vols. fob).
Alverson, John B., a Methodist Episcopal min- ister, was born in Ontario County, N. Y., in 1793, and died at Perry, N.Y., April 21, 1850. At the age of twenty he joined the Church, and at twenty-four was admitted into the Genesee Conference as an itinerant preacher. After twenty years' service in circuits and stations he was appointed presiding elder of Genesee district in 1838, and of Rochester district in 1842. He possessed a discriminating mind, a prompt yet cautious judgment, a high sense of honor and integri- ty, a correct taste, and a well-furnished understand- ing, by which he secured for himself a high position in the confidence and affection of his brethren ; in tes- timony of which he was intrusted with many offices of responsibility. In 1824, 1844, and 1848, he was a delegate to the General Conference, by the last of which he was appointed a member of the committee for the revision of the hymn-book. He was a man of commanding eloquence and power in the pulpit. For eight years he was president of the board of trustees of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. — Minutes of Confer- ences, iv, 522.
Alypius, St., of Tagaste, in Numidia, was SQme years younger than Augustine, to whom he was strong- ly attached. From Carthage, whither he followed Augustine, he went to Rome to study the law, and there obtained a place in the imperial treasury. This charge he gave up in order to follow Augustine to Milan. Both of them up to this time had been Mani- chseans, and both were at this time converted to the Catholic faith, and baptized in the church of St. Am- brose on Easter-eve, A.D. 387. Upon their return to Africa the}' withdrew into a solitude near Tagaste ; but when Augustine was ordained a priest of the church of Hippo, he drew Alypius from his solitude to take charge of the monastery which he had just built in Hippo. After this Alypius visited the Holy Land, and upon his return in 394 was elected bishop of Tagaste. In 403 he was present at a council held at Carthage in which the Donatists were invited to a conference, but refused; and in 411 he was named, with six others, to represent the Catholics in the cele- brated conference between the Catholics and Donatists which the Emperor Honorius enjoined. It is believed that he was with Augustine at Hippo at the time of his death in 430, and it is uncertain how long he sur- vived him. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on the 15th of August. — S. August. Confess, lib. vi; Ep. 22, etc. ; S. Jerome, Ep. 81 ; Baillet, Aug. 15; Butler, Lives of Saints, iii, 375.
Alypius, St., the Stylite, so called because he re- mained for more than fifty years on the top of a pil- lar, like Simeon and the other Stylites. He was born at Adrianople. At thirty-two years of age, having distributed to the poor all his property, he took up i his abode at the top of a pillar, where he remained till his death, about 010, the precise date being un-