Saint Simeon Stylites

Syrian monk

• Born: c. 390
• Birthplace: Sisan, Cilicia (now in Syria)
• Died: 459
• Place of death: Telanissos (now Deir Samaan, Syria)

An ascetic who spent the greater part of his career perched in prayer atop a sixty-foot pillar, Simeon was one of the most controversial figures of the fifth century. Although he left behind no works of enduring value, he was the conscience and spiritual example for Syrian Christians in the patristic period.

Early Life

Simeon Stylites (sti-LI-teez) was born of Christian parents in the town of Sisan, Cilicia (now in northern Syria), around 390. He was baptized in his youth by his very pious parents, who provided a home life in which religious matters were a frequent topic of conversation. Until he was about thirteen years old, Simeon spent his time shepherding his father’s flocks in the neighborhood of Sis; this was a task that, according to the Syriac biography of Simeon, he discharged with great diligence and sometimes to the point of exhaustion.

The occupation of shepherd improved Simeon’s strength, gentleness, speed, and endurance but had little effect on his slight build. A dreamy boy, he would often meditate while watching the campfire flame and burn storax as a tribute to the ubiquitous God of his parents. Because of his kindly disposition, he was a favorite with the other shepherds, and to show his generosity he would often forgo food until his friends had eaten.

The turning point in Simeon’s life occurred shortly after his thirteenth birthday. One Sunday, while attending church, he was deeply moved by the Gospel reading for that day, which included the Beatitudes “Blessed are they that mourn” and “Blessed are the pure of heart.” Simeon asked the congregation the meaning of these words and how one might attain the blessedness referred to in the Gospels. An old man who was present suggested that the monastic life was the surest but steepest path to holiness because it was characterized by prayer, fasting, and austerities designed to mortify the flesh and purify the soul.

On hearing this reply, it is said, Simeon withdrew to the pasture lands with his flocks to burn storax and meditate on what the old man had said. One day, in the course of his meditations, Simeon had the first of the many visions described in his biographies. In it, Jesus Christ appeared to him under the disquieting visage of the apocalyptic Son of Man and commanded him to build a sound foundation on which it would be possible to erect the superstructure of an edifice unparalleled in all human history.

Simeon took this vision to mean that it was his life that was to be the foundation of a great work that Christ would complete. The marvelous nature of this work, however, demanded a foundation of extraordinary strength and endurance. In Simeon’s reckoning, that meant that special sacrifices would be required, and these would best be accomplished within the confines of a monastic community.

Life’s Work

The various biographies differ about how Simeon spent his monastic period. Less reliable biographies mention an initial two-year sojourn, near Sis, at the monastery of the abbot Timothy, where Simeon is said to have learned the psalter by heart. Theodoret’s biography and the Syriac biography, on the other hand, indicate that Simeon first took the tonsure at the monastery of Eusebona at Tell ‘Ada, between Antioch and Aleppo. Whichever is the accurate narrative, the sources agree that Simeon’s stay at Eusebona was charged with many extraordinary occurrences.

To mortify his flesh, Simeon engaged in fasts lasting many days, exposed himself to extremes of inclement weather, and humbly but steadfastly endured the jeering of envious monastics and the onslaught of demonic forces (whether real or imagined). One peculiar austerity, which Theodoret identifies as the principal cause of Simeon’s eviction from Eusebona, serves as an example of this ascetic’s willpower (and fanaticism). Finding a well rope made of tightly twisted, razor-sharp palm leaves, Simeon wrapped it snugly around his midriff. So tight was the wrapping that the flesh swelled on either side of the coils as they cut progressively deeper into his flesh. Finally, after Simeon had begun to show some signs of discomfort, the abbot of Eusebona had the bindings forcibly removed, despite Simeon’s protestations. So deep had the rope cut into Simeon’s body that the bloody wound had matted the bindings and robes together. For three days, the monks had to apply liquids to soften Simeon’s clothes in order to remove them, the result being that when the rope was finally uncoiled it brought with it pieces of Simeon’s flesh and a torrent of blood.

From this last austerity, Simeon’s recovery was slow, nearly leaving him an invalid. Tired of the bickering and petty jealousies that Simeon’s practices had aroused among his monastic brothers—and probably not a little horrified at Simeon’s fanatical zeal—the abbot of Eusebona discharged Simeon, giving him his blessing and forty dinars for food and clothing.

Simeon’s expulsion from the monastery at Eusebona was significant because it was typical of the response of abbots to ascetic practices that went beyond the bounds of good sense. Simeon’s own desire to perform acts of supererogation, even at the expense of disobedience to his superior, may seem to suggest that he deserves to be classed among the Sarabaitic monks—those who were described by Saint Jerome and John Cassian as thwarting all authority. The various biographies, however, are unanimous in proclaiming Simeon’s freedom from the grasping, care-ridden personality of a Sarabaite.

After leaving the monastery, Simeon’s life more closely resembled the lives of the anchorites, described by Cassian as hermits who were the most fruitful of the monastics and achieved greater heights of contemplation because they withdrew to the desert to face the assaults of demons directly. According to Cassian, John the Baptist was the forerunner of the anchorites. It is this group that most probably can claim Simeon as its own.

After his dismissal from the monastery at Eusebona, Simeon wandered to the foot of Mount Telneshae in northern Syria. Intent on beginning a special set of austerities for the Lenten season, he approached an almost deserted hermitage and asked its keeper to provide a cell in which he might seclude himself. There, Simeon fasted for forty days. Not satisfied with this feat of extraordinary endurance, he determined to undertake a three-year fast. Frightened by the duration and severity of the proposed fast, the keeper of the hermitage, Bassus, convinced Simeon that such a work was imprudent and that he ought to divide the period in half, lest he kill himself. Simeon agreed.

It was the completion of the year-and-a-half fast that established a name for Simeon. News of his endurance and holiness was carried abroad. Everywhere people began to talk about the Syrian phenomenon: The backwater of Telneshae had been graced by God; a saint had come to dwell there. People began to flock to the hermitage to seek the wisdom of this holy man and his curative powers. When they returned home, they brought with them stories of his marvelous abilities, abilities that were the fruit of his extreme asceticism.

For about ten years, Simeon practiced his asceticism in an open cell on Mount Telneshae, each year repeating the particulars of his original Lenten fast. One day, sometime around the year 422, Simeon had a vision that was to distinguish him forever as an ascetic of a special kind. Twenty-one days into his Lenten fast, Simeon beheld an apparition. He saw a man, noble in stature, dressed in a military girdle, face radiant as the sun, praying aloud. After finishing his prayer, the stranger climbed up on the pillar-shaped stone, three cubits (about four and a half feet) high, which stood near Simeon’s cell and served as a makeshift altar. Standing on the stone, the stranger folded his hands behind his back, bowed toward Simeon, and looked heavenward with his hands outstretched. For three days and three nights the stranger thus prayed before vanishing.

Simeon regarded this experience as a decisive revelation. From that point onward, he was to practice his fasts standing on a column of stone, exposed to the extremes of weather. He had been called to be a stylite (from the Greek stulos, meaning “pillar”).

At first Simeon’s new practice aroused the ire of the Christian leaders in the region. It may have been the novelty of Simeon’s practice that angered them or it may have been that Simeon’s peculiar form of worship seemed a retrogression, a return to the adoration practiced in Syria in pre-Christian times—particularly in Hierapolis. Lucian of Antioch wrote that in Hierapolis, twice a year, a priest would ascend a tall column to commune with the goddess Attar’athae and the rest of the Syrian pantheon. It may have seemed to the local religious leaders that Simeon was reviving the form, if not the content, of this pagan worship.

Whatever the cause of the displeasure of the Christian leaders, its expression diminished as quickly as the public adulation of Simeon increased. One can imagine what a powerful sight the stylite must have been, a sight that awakened deep and elemental associations in the pilgrims (particularly the Syrians). He must have been a spectacle: an emaciated figure, arms raised in unceasing prayer, perched atop a narrow column whose diameter provided barely enough room for the saint to recline. Simeon’s figure could be seen on his spindle 365 days a year, regardless of the weather, at all times of day. He could be seen silhouetted against the rising and setting sun, shining in the midday azure sky, and brilliantly illuminated against Stygian thunderclouds by stroboscopic flashes of lightning. Finally, add to the image a constant procession of pilgrims winding their way up Mount Telneshae (some nearly exhausted from the great distances traveled but still hopeful that they might be healed, find advice, or discover a holy truth) and one has some idea of the deep impression that Simeon Stylites made on his age.

For thirty-seven years, Simeon stood atop pillars of various sizes under all conditions. Many pagans were converted by his miracles and example, and even those barbarians who remained unconverted held the saint in the highest esteem. If the biographers are to be trusted, three emperors (Theodosius, Leo I, and Marcian) sought his advice about difficult state matters. Also, two surviving, but possibly spurious, letters attributed to Simeon indicate that he intervened on the side of the Christians when Emperor Theodosius issued an edict to restore Jewish property unlawfully seized by Christians and that he wrote to Emperor Leo I to approve the opening of the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Concerning the exact time of Simeon’s death, his biographers give different accounts. They mark the date as Friday, July 24, Wednesday, September 2, or Friday, September 25, in the year 459. Whatever the precise date, the accounts agree that Simeon died in prayer, surrounded by his disciples.

For four days the corpse of the saint was paraded throughout the region, and on the fifth day it was carried through the streets of the great city of Antioch to the accompaniment of chanting, the burning of incense and candles, a constant sprinkling of fine perfumes, and many miraculous cures and signs. The body of the blessed Simeon was laid to rest in the great cathedral of Constantine, an honor that had never before been awarded either saint or statesman. There it remained for a while, despite even the attempts of Emperor Leo to have it transported to his own court as a talisman against evil. Eventually, the cult of Simeon grew so significantly that a pilgrimage church, in the style of Constantine’s cathedral, was built at Qual’at Saman to house Simeon’s remains.

Significance

Unlike great philosophers, theologians, and statesmen, Simeon Stylites left no great works of intellect or polity behind. Of the surviving letters attributed to him, it is difficult to say which are spurious and which are original because of their contradictory doctrinal positions and obvious redactions. What, then, can be made of Simeon’s life? What was its impact on the world of the fifth century?

It is possible to describe the impact of Simeon as twofold. First, he contributed a peculiar ascetic technique that was imitated and extended by other stylites, such as Daniel, Simeon Stylites the Younger, Alypius, Luke, and Lazarus. As an ascetic practice, Simeon’s method was one of the most severe. Yet, if practiced in a pure spirit, it held great promise: It could transform its adherent into a channel of supernatural grace.

Second, Simeon contributed something symbolic to the world of the fifth century. Regardless of which accounts of his wisdom and his importance to the social and theological controversies are accurate, all of his biographers asserted that Simeon’s chief significance was as a religious symbol. His was a life whose worth must be measured in terms of the possibilities of the human spirit, not in terms of practical results or durable goods. His actions—like the actions of many other saints in the various world religions—were a testimony to the existence of values that transcend those of the visible world. Because he demonstrated the power of these values through a concrete form of supererogatory practice, people could grasp them easily. That is the reason he was so respected: He enacted his belief.

Bibliography

Brown, Peter. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise in Latin Christianity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Useful for its general analysis of the phenomena associated with saint devotion. Although Brown’s work is about the cult of the saints in the patristic Latin West, some of his arguments can be extended by analogy to Eastern Christianity. Particularly pertinent are his discussions of saintly patronage, the gift of perseverance, and the power associated with saintly presence. The cult of devotion that developed after Simeon’s death manifests these features as clearly as any Western cult.

Doran, Robert, trans. The Lives of Simeon Stylites. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian, 1992. Includes English translations of two Greek biographies of Saint Simeon, by Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Antonius. Also includes translation of an anonymus Syriac version, which is more episodic and contains more details that are historically questionable yet is useful for capturing the spirit of the man. Contains map, bibliography, and index.

Downey, Glanville. Ancient Antioch. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963. An accessible book on the history of ancient Antioch from its origins to the decline of the Roman Empire, it is a condensation of another work by Downey, cited below. As Simeon was at the center of many political and theological controversies of his day, this book helps situate his involvement within the social, cultural, and religious history of Syria’s most important city. Contains some maps and illustrations.

Downey, Glanville. A History of Antioch in Syria: From Seleucus to the Arab Conquest. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961. One of the most ambitious histories of Antioch from the time of the Seleucids until the Arab conquest, this work contains a wealth of historical information on ancient Christian and pre-Christian Antioch. Contains maps and illustrations.

Voobus, Arthur. History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient: A Contribution to the History of Culture in the Near East. 3 vols. Stockholm: Louvain, 1958-1988. The seminal work on Syrian asceticism and spirituality. Contains much material on the life of Simeon as well as his successors. The most useful work for anyone interested in studying the phenomenon of asceticism and the forms it assumed in the Syrian environment.