Simeon the Stylite
Hailing from what is now Turkey, Simeon the Stylite (c. 390-459) was a low-born shepherd like Christina the Astonishing. After reading the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11) at the age of 13, Simeon developed a great zeal for Christianity and entered a monastery aged 16. Simeon’s dedication to God and bodily mortification, however, did not sit well with his fellow monastic oblates, who thought it a demonstrative extravagance, which meant he was unsuitable for life as part of a community. Thus he was sent away and, like John the Baptist and Jesus Christ before him, Simeon went to the desert.
Simeon first chose to live in a hut for 18 months. He neither ate nor drank through the whole of Lent (40 days at the time), and emerged to great fanfare from people who had learned of his intention and deemed it a miracle. Finding life in the hut too easy, Simeon next sought a cave, measuring only 20 yards in diameter, high up in Sheik Barakat Mountain. However, his fame had spread after the Lenten fast, and he was soon disturbed by hordes of people asking for a blessing or curse, and so he had to move again.
Simeon had his Eureka moment when he found a pillar amongst the ruins in modern-day Taladah, Syria. To stop people interrupting his private prayer and solitude, Simeon determined to live high off the ground on a platform on which no one else could possibly fit. Initially, nine feet off the ground, Simeon received the blessing of monastic Elders and was able to relocate several times to even higher pillars, the last of which was 60 feet off the ground. Finally, Simeon had his solitude, and having no shelter from the elements he had found the most extreme conditions possible.
Simeon lived up to various pillars for 37 years, usually standing upright in prayer. His fame was such, ironically, that images of him were reproduced across the Christian world, and many came to seek advice. He would address onlookers on occasion and even wrote a few surviving letters to Church Councils. He would not, however, leave his pillar, even when he became gravely ill and three bishops ordered him down. Recovering on this occasion, he finally died mid-prayer of old age. The Church of Saint Simeon Stylites was founded on the site of the pillar shortly after his death.
