Stylites, SIMEON,

Stylites, SIMEON, the earliest and most famous of the ascetics called Pillar-saints (Gr. stylites), had been a monk, and had lived, in the beginning of the 5th century, in extreme seclusion in his Syrian monastery for nine years, without ever moving from his narrow cell. Increasing in enthusiasm he withdrew to Telanessa, near Antioch, where he established himself on the top of a pillar 72 feet high, and only 4 feet square at the top. Here he spent thirty years. During the day he preached to the crowds who gathered at the foot of his pillar; and his admonitions to emperors and empresses were accepted with humility. The fame of his sanctity brought crowds of pilgrims from the most distant countries to see him; and the admiration of his fasting and other austerities is said to have converted many pagans to the church. He died on his pillar in 459, aged seventy-two, and was buried with the greatest pomp at Antioch. A disciple of Simcon, named Daniel, succeeded to his reputation for sanctity, and to his mode of life, which he maintained for thirty-three years, in the still more trying climate of the shores of the Bosphorus, about 4 miles from Constantinople. The emperor at length insisted on a covering being placed over the top of the pillar, and Daniel survived till the year 494. In Syria there were many pillar-saints as far down as the 12th century; but in the west Daniel is all but a solitary example. A monk named Wulfailich, near Treves, attempted the pillar-life in the 6th century, but the neighbouring bishops compelled him to desist and destroyed his pillar.