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St. Symeon

When we think of religious vigor today, we have certain ideas of what is appropriate and inappropriate. During the early years of Christianity, religious vigor was quite different. Many men and women chose a life of asceticism. That is they isolated themselves from the rest of society in order to pursue a course of life solely devoted to God. Around the third century and fourth century is when a lot of religious doctrines were being solidified more. Monasteries were established, and rules for them were set by various individuals (most famous is of course, Benedict of Nursia). The contemporary of Symeon however was St. Anthony and St. Savvas. They pursued a simple life, and a life of hardship in order to be nearer to God. I think personally the most extreme of these forms were the Stylites (or the Pillar Saints). The first of these was Symeon (390-459). His life is recounted in three separate sources. He is somewhat a celebrity around this time. He was from a well to do peasant family in Turkey. At ten he left home to pursue a life of aestheticism. However, he demanded such strictness that the other aesthetics couldn't stand him and he gained a reputation for being able to withstand so much that people began to visit him. He didn't want people to visit him so he went to hide out in the mountains. That didn't work, because people still visited him. Finally, he started to build a pillar that he could live on. The last one that he built was sixty feet tall. And he didn't come down. If people wanted to see him they had to claim a ladder near the pillar. People still came to visit him. In fact an entire pilgrim community developed around him. As Symeon perched on his pillar, he performed miracles, cured ills, and ended infertility and droughts. And on the pillar he remained until his death. If you think about it, Symeon is quite amazing. In all four seasons he stayed on top of the pillar, against bitter coldness. It is said that he once fasted forty days on just water. It would seem that he withstood what was humanly impossible for a very long time. As the biographer of St. Luke the Stylite put it, these harsh conditions forced the body to battle the soul, and because of these harsh conditions the soul would eventually win. After Symeon there were many more who became Stylites, though many clergymen thought them too wild, too independent. Some were actually forced to come down from their pillars. However, these pillar saints/Stylites exercised enormous power because of the proof of their holiness by them withstanding so much. St. Daniel of Constantinople for example.