Occupying the Chair of Philosophy in the Alexandrian Museum formerly held by her father, Theon the Mathematician, Hypatia was the leading pagan intellectual of her time. Proving herself superior in lecture and debate to her Christian opponents, she incurred the wrath of "Saint" Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. Inspired by his hatred, a group of monks from the Nitrian Desert, led by an illiterate fanatic ironically named Peter the Reader, ambushed Hypatia in the street. They pulled her from her chariot and dragged her to the Caesarean Church where she was beaten to death. They then mutilated her body with sharpened oyster shells and burned the remains. Hypatia's death symbolised the downfall of Neo-Platonic enlightenment and the rise of the dark age of Christian dogma.