 According to one of his letters, he may have had Jewish background and been born into or converted to Christianity, or he might have been purely Christian; the uncertainty is due to his metaphorical use of the term ‘Jew’ to possibly refer to God's chosen people rather than the ethnic/religious identity used today.Our more certain knowledge of Alvarus begins when he met his friend Eulogius for the first time while studying under Speraindeo, "magister" (‘teacher’) of young clerics.Alvarus and Eulogius developed a strong friendship which was to last until Eulogius's martyrdom, a friendship which developed into some sort of Platonic love.