Symeon the Stylite

Life on the Pillar

The discipline for which Symeon is remembered took its name from the Greek word for pillar (style). Having found no refuge from pilgrims in his earlier retreats, he established himself on a column near the village and lived on its summit, within a small enclosure surrounded by a railing, for the remainder of his life. He raised himself onto successively taller pillars over the years; sources record an early column of roughly six to eight feet and a final height variously reported, with the OCA account giving eighty feet.

He communicated with those below by means of a ladder and through letters, and a double wall was later raised to limit the press of visitors. The sources differ on how long he spent atop the pillar, giving figures from roughly thirty-five to forty-seven years. He maintained extreme bodily disciplines of fasting, standing, and repeated prostration; one early observer is reported to have counted more than 1,200 of his bows.

Counsel and Influence

Despite his withdrawal, Symeon became a figure of wide influence. People of every station, described in the sources as rich and poor, rulers and slaves, gathered at his pillar to seek his prayers, healing, and counsel. He preached temperance and compassion and warned against profanity and usury, and he is said to have intervened in public affairs, denouncing a prefect accused of favoring pagans.

He corresponded with emperors and bishops: the Emperor Theodosius II and the Empress Aelia Eudocia held him in regard, and he sent the Emperor Leo I a letter in support of the Council of Chalcedon (451), upholding its definition against those who rejected it. By tradition he is said to have influenced figures as distant as Saint Genevieve of Paris and to have drawn many of the Arab nomads of the region to the faith.

Relics & Shrine

After his death his body was brought down from the pillar and his relics were taken to Antioch, whose patriarch Martyrius conducted the funeral before great crowds; the city is said to have kept the greater portion of the relics.

A large shrine complex, known as Qal'at Sim'an (the Fortress of Simeon), was later raised in his honor northwest of Aleppo: an octagonal court from which four basilicas extended in the form of a cross, with the base of his pillar at the center. The remains of the column survived at the site into modern times.

Legacy

Symeon was the first and most celebrated of the stylites, and the manner of life he pioneered spread through the Christian East in the following century. Later ascetics, among them Daniel the Stylite (died 493), took up pillar-dwelling in imitation of him, so that the stylite became an established figure of Eastern Christian asceticism.