January 5th. St. Simeon Stylites [390-459].

St. Simeon ‘of the pillar’, as his name means, is the most famous example of those early self-denying hermits who chose to live on the tops of pillars as a form of mortification and solitude; the discipline may seem baffling to us, but may be compared to the Oriental practice of the fakir on his bed of nails. St. Simeon was a Syrian; in his youth he had disciplined himself so severely in a monastery that the abbot dismissed him; he then became a cave- and mountain-dwelling hermit, passing the whole of Lent without sustenance. Finally in an (unsuccessful) attempt to elude the many visitors who came to him seeking spiritual advice, he took to pillars, beginning at a height of 9' and gradually increasing to one of 60' on which he spent the last 20 years of his life, repeatedly prostrating himself in prayer. Pilgrims still found him out, and other Christians wrote to him (his letters, along with other necessaries, being hauled up in a basket on a rope). His spiritual advice - in contrast to his own life-style - was marked by moderation and kindliness. Finally in 459 he bowed himself down on his 6' wide pillar top and died, being buried at Antioch. A church and monastery were built near the site of his column, and some remains of these still exist today.