Simeon Stylites
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St. Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite (circa 388 - 459), Christian saint, was born at Sisan in northern Syria. He is called stylite after the Greek word style meaning pillar. After beginning life as a shepherd boy, he entered a monastery before the age of 16, but left when his fellow monks judged him to be unsuited to communal life. He then shut himself up for three years in a hut, where he passed the whole of Lent without eating or drinking. He later took to standing continually upright so long as his limbs would sustain him.
After three years in his hut, Simeon sought a rocky eminence in the desert and compelled himself to remain a prisoner within a narrow space less than 20 metres in diameter. But crowds of pilgrims invaded the desert to seek him out, asking his counsel or his prayers, and leaving him insufficient time for his own devotions. This at last led him to adopt a new way of life.
Simeon had a pillar erected with a small platform at the top, and upon this he determined to live out his life. At first the pillar was little more than 3 metres high, but it was subsequently replaced by others, the last in the series being apparently over 15 metres from the ground.
Even on the highest of his columns Simeon was not withdrawn from the world. By means of a ladder, visitors were able to ascend; and we know that he wrote letters, the text of some of which we still possess, that he instructed disciples, and that he also delivered addresses to those assembled beneath.
Simeon's fame spread throughout the Empire. The Emperor Theodosius and the Empress Eudocia greatly respected the saint and listened to his counsels, while the Emperor Leo paid respectful attention to a letter he sent in favour of the Council of Chalcedon. Once when Simeon was ill Theodosius sent three bishops to beg him to descend and allow himself to be attended by physicians, but Simeon preferred to leave his cure in the hands of God, and before long he recovered.
After spending 36 years on his pillar, Simeon died on 2 September 459. He inspired many imitators, and for the next century ascetics living on pillars were a common sight throughout the Byzantine Levant, although few managed to survive as long as Simeon. Bizarre though his story seems, there are a number of surviving eye-witness accounts and the historicity of St. Simeon is not doubted.
A contest arose between Antioch and Constantinople for the possession of Simeon's remains. The preference was given to Antioch, and the greater part of his relics were left there as a protection to the unwalled city. The ruins of the vast edifice erected in his honour and known in Arabic as the Qal at Simān (the mansion of Simeon) can still be seen. It consists of four basilicas built out from an octagonal court towards the four points of the compass. In the centre of the court stands the base of St. Simeon's column.
This article is based on text from the Catholic Encyclopaedia and panmodern.com (http://www.panmodern.com/simeon.html)