(A.D. 460.)
[Commemorated on this day in the Latin Martyrologies, but on Sept.
1st by the Greeks. There were three of this name; the second, who
lived at a later date, is commemorated by the Greeks on May 24th;
and the third, whom they designate Priest and Archimandrite, on
July 26th. These two later Saints copied the great Simeon Stylites,
of world-wide renown. The life of this famous hermit was written by
a disciple of his, named Anthony, who was with him when he died;
and also by Theodoret, who knew him well in life. Also, by Evagrius
in his Ecclesiastical History.]
[Illustration: S. SIMEON STYLITES. From Hone's "Every Day Book."
Jan. 5.]
"Simeon," says Theodoret, "was born in the village of Gesa, between
Antioch and Cilicia, and as a boy kept his father's sheep. One day,
forced by heavy snow to leave them in the fold, he went with his
parents to the church, and there heard the Gospel read, which blesses
those who mourn and weep; which calls those enviable who have a pure
heart. And when he asked a bystander what he would gain who kept the
Beatitudes, the man propounded to him the life of self-sacrifice.
This," Theodoret adds, "he heard from the Saint's own tongue."
Forthwith, Simeon going out of the church, went to a neighbouring
monastery, governed by one Timothy; and falling down before the gate,
he lay five days, neither eating nor drinking. And on the fifth day,
the abbot, coming out, asked him, "Whence art thou, my son? What
parents hast thou, that thou art so afflicted? Or, what is thy name,
lest perchance thou hast done wrong? or, perchance, thou art a slave,
and fleest from thy master?" Then the lad answered with tears, "No,
master! I long to be a servant of God, and to save my soul. Suffer me
to enter the monastery, and send me not away."
Then the abbot, taking him by the hand, introduced him into the house,
saying to the brethren, "My sons, behold I deliver you this brother;
teach him the rules." He was in the convent about four months, serving
all without complaint, and in that time he learned the whole Psalter
by heart. But the food which he took with his brethren, he gave away
secretly to the poor, reserving for himself only food for one day in
the seven. But one day, having gone to the well to draw water, he took
the rope from the bucket and wound it round his body, from the loins to
the neck, and wore it till his flesh was cut into by the rope. One day,
some of the brethren found him giving his food to the poor; and when
they returned, they complained to the abbot, saying, "We cannot abstain
like him; he fasts from Lord's day to Lord's day, and gives away his
food." Then the abbot rebuked him, and Simeon answered not. And the
abbot being angry, bade strip him, and found the rope round him, sunk
into the flesh, and with great trouble it was uncoiled, and the skin
came off with it; then the monks took care of him and healed him. When
he was healed, he went out of the monastery and entered a deserted
tank, where there was no water; no man knowing. After a few days, he
was found, and the abbot descended into the tank. Then the blessed
Simeon, seeing him, began to entreat, saying, "I beg you, servants of
God, let me alone one hour, that I may render up my spirit; for yet a
little while, and it will fail. But my soul is very weary, because I
have angered the Lord."
But the abbot said to him, "Come, servant of God, that we may take thee
to the monastery." But when he would not, they brought him by force,
and he stayed in the community about one year. "After this," says
Theodoret, "he came to the Telanassus, under the peak of the mountain,
on which he lived till his death, and having found a little house,
he remained in it shut up for three years. But, eager to advance in
virtue, he tried to persuade Blasus, who was archpriest of the villages
around, to leave nothing within by him, for forty days and nights, but
to close up the door with clay. The priest warned him that to die by
one's own act is no virtue, but is a great crime." "Put by me then,
father," he said, "ten loaves, and a cruse of water, and if I find my
body needs sustenance, I will partake of them." Then Blasus did so, and
at the end of the days Blasus removed the clay, and going in, found the
bread and water untouched, and Simeon lying, unable to speak or move.
Getting a sponge, he moistened and opened his lips, and then gave him
the Holy Eucharist; and strengthened by this immortal Food, he chewed,
little by little, lettuces and succory, and such like.
When he had passed three years in that little house, he took possession
of the peak, which has since been so famous; and when he had commanded
a wall to be made round him, and procured an iron chain, he fastened
one end of it to a great stone, and the other to his right foot, so
that he could not, if he wished, have left those bounds. But when
Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, saw him, he told him that if he had the
will to remain, the iron profited nothing. Then, having sent for a
smith, he bade him strike off the chain.
The fame of the wondrous austerities of this man wrought upon the
wild Arab tribes, and effected what no missionaries had been able, as
yet, to perform. No doubt the fearful severities exercised by Simeon,
on himself, are startling and even shocking. But the Spirit of God
breathes where He wills, and thou canst not tell whence He cometh and
whither He goeth. What but the divine Spirit could have caught that
young boy's soul away from keeping sheep, and looking forward to the
enjoyment of youth, and precipitated it into this course, so contrary
to flesh and blood? Theodoret says, that as kings change the impression
on their coins, sometimes stamping them with the image of lions,
sometimes of stars, sometimes of angels, so the divine Monarch produces
different marks of sanctity at different periods, and at each period
He calls forth these virtues, or characters, He needs for a particular
work. So was it now; on the wild sons of the desert, no missionaries
had made an impression; their rough hearts had given no echo to the
sound of the Gospel. Something of startling novelty was needed to
catch their attention, and strike their imagination, and drag them
violently to the cross. These wild men came from their deserts to see
the weird, haggard man in his den. He fled from them as they crowded
upon him, not into the wastes of sand, but up a pillar; first up one
six cubits, then one twelve cubits, and finally, one of thirty-six. The
sons of Ishmael poured to the foot of the pillar, "like a river along
the roads, and formed an ocean of men about it." "And," says Theodoret,
"myriads of Ishmaelites, who had been enslaved in the darkness of
impiety, were illuminated by that station on the column. For this
most shining light, set as it were on a candlestick, sent forth all
around its beams, like the sun, and one might see Iberi, Persians, and
Armenians coming and receiving divine baptism. But the Ishmaelites
(Arabs,) coming by tribes, 200 and 300 at a time, and sometimes even
1,000, denied with shouts the error of their ancestors; and breaking
in pieces the images they had worshipped, and renouncing the orgies
of Venus, they received the divine Sacraments, and accepted laws from
that holy tongue. And this I have seen with my own eyes, and have
heard them renouncing the impiety of their fathers, and assenting to
Evangelic doctrine." Here was the result. Little did the boy know, as
he lay before the monastery door five days without eating, to what God
had called him; for what work he was predestined, when he coiled the
rope about his body. The Spirit had breathed, and he had followed the
impulse, and now he wrought what the tongue of a prophet could not have
affected. And it was worth the pain of that rope torn from his bleeding
body; it was recompense for those long fastings.
"Three winters, that my soul might grow to Thee,
I lived up there on yonder mountain side;
My right leg chain'd into the crag, I lay
Pent in a roofless close of ragged stones;
Inswathed sometimes in wandering mist, and twice
Black'd with Thy branding thunder, and sometimes
Sucking the damps for drink, and eating not."
It was worth all this, if souls could be added to the Lord, as they
were, by hundreds and thousands. God's ways are not as our ways. The God
who needed these souls, called up the soul of Simeon to do the work, and
Simeon obeyed, and traversed perhaps the most awful path man has yet
trod.
It is not for us to condemn a mode of life which there is no need for
men to follow now. It was needed then, and he is rightly numbered with
the Saints, who submitted his will to that of God, to make of him an
instrument for His purpose in the way that He saw best.
"There came from Arabena a certain good man," says Theodoret, "who, when
he had come to that mountain peak, 'Tell me,' he cried, 'by the very
Truth, art thou a man, or of incorporeal nature?' But when all there
were displeased with the question, the Saint bade them all be silent,
and bade them set a ladder to the column, and bade the man come up; and
first look at his hands, and then feel inside his cloak of skins, and
see not only his feet, but also a severe ulcer in them. But when he saw
that he was a man, and the size of that sore, and learnt from him how he
took nourishment, he came down and told me all."
"On festivals, from the setting of the sun till its appearance again, he
stood all night with his hands uplifted to heaven, neither soothed with
sleep, nor conquered by fatigue. But in toils so great, and so great
magnitude of deeds, and multitude of miracles, his self-esteem is as
moderate as if he were in dignity the least of men. Besides his modesty,
he is easy of access of speech, and gracious, and answers every man who
speaks to him. And from the bounteous God he has received the gift of
teaching, and he makes exhortations to the people twice every day. He
may be seen also acting as a judge, giving just decisions. This, and the
like, is done after the ninth hour. For all night, and through the day
to the ninth hour, he prays perpetually. After that he sets forth
divine teaching to those who are present, and then, having heard each
man's petition, having performed some cures, he settles disputes. About
sunset, he begins the rest of his converse with God. But though he is
employed in this way, he does not give up the care of the churches,
sometimes fighting against the impiety of the Greeks, sometimes checking
the audacity of the Jews, sometimes putting to flight the heretics, and
sometimes sending messages to the emperor; sometimes stirring up rulers
to zeal for God, and sometimes exhorting the pastors of the churches to
bestow more care on their flocks."
To make trial of his humility, an order was sent him, in the name of the
neighbouring bishops and abbots, to quit his pillar, and new manner of
life. The Saint, ready to obey the summons, was about to step down; when
the messenger, seeing his willingness to obey, said he was empowered to
authorize him to follow his vocation.
Once, his mother hearing of his fame, came to see him, but was not
allowed to enter the enclosure around the pillar. But when Simeon heard
his mother's voice, he said to her, "Bear up, my mother, a little while,
and we shall see each other, if God will." But she began to weep and
rebuke him, saying, "Son, why hast thou done this? In return for the
body I bore thee, thou has filled me with grief. For the milk with which
I nourished thee, thou hast given me tears. For the kiss with which I
kissed thee, thou hast given me an aching heart." "She made us all
weep," says Anthony, who writes this incident. Simeon, on his pillar,
was also deeply agitated, and, covering his face with his hands, he wept
bitterly, and cried to her, "Lady mother, be still a little while, and
we shall see each other in eternal rest." The poor mother, with harrowed
heart, hung about the place for three days, crying to her son, and wrung
with grief to see his terrible penance. Then Simeon, grieving for her,
prayed to God to give her rest, and at the end of those three days she
fell asleep in Christ. Then the people took up her body and brought it
where Simeon might see it. And he, weeping, said, "The Lord receive thee
in joy, mother! because thou hast endured tribulation for me, and borne
me, and nursed and nourished me with labour." Then he prayed, "Lord God
of virtues, who sittest above the Cherubim, and searchest the
foundations of the abyss, who knewest Adam before he was; who hast
promised the riches of the kingdom of heaven to those who love Thee; who
didst speak to Moses out of the burning bush; who blessedst Abraham our
father; who bringest to Paradise the souls of the just, and sinkest the
souls of the ungodly in perdition; who didst humble the lions before
Daniel, and mitigate for the Three Children the strong fire of the
Chaldees; who didst nourish Elijah by the ravens which brought him food,
receive her soul in peace, and put her in the place of the holy Fathers,
for Thine is the power, for ever and ever."
A robber, Jonathan by name, fled to S. Simeon, and embraced the column,
weeping bitterly, and confessing his sins, and saying that he desired to
repent. Then the Saint cried, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven. But
beware that thou fall not again." Then came the officials from Antioch,
demanding the poor wretch, that he might be cast to wild beasts in the
amphitheatre. But Simeon answered, "My sons, I brought him not hither,
but One greater than I. I cannot give him up, for I fear Him who sent
the man to me."
Then the sergeants, struck with fear, went away. And Jonathan lay for
seven days embracing the column, and then asked leave to depart. The
Saint asked him if he was going to return to sin. "No, my lord!"
answered the robber; "but my time is fulfilled." And straightway he gave
up the ghost; and when the sergeants came from Antioch, again insisting
that he should be given up to suffer for his crimes, Simeon replied,
pointing to the body, "He who brought the poor sinner here, has come
with His angels, and has pardoned this man Himself."
Anthony, his disciple, thus relates the death of the old hermit. "After
a few years, it befell one day, that he bowed himself in prayer, and
remained so three days, Friday, the Sabbath, and the Lord's day. Then I
was terrified, and went up to him on the pillar, and stood before his
face, and said, 'Master, arise! bless us, for the people have been
waiting three days and nights for a blessing from thee.' But he answered
me not, so I said to him again, 'Wherefore dost thou grieve me, my lord!
I beseech thee, put out thy hand to me.' And seeing that he did not
answer, I thought to tell no one; for I feared to touch him, and
standing about half-an-hour, I bent down, and put my ear to listen; and
there was no breathing. And so I understood that he rested in the Lord;
and turning faint, I wept most bitterly; and bending down, I kissed his
eyes; and I cried, 'Master, remember me in thy holy rest.' And lifting
up his garments, I fell at his feet, and kissed them, and holding his
hands, I laid them on my eyes, saying, 'Bless me, I beseech thee, my
lord!'"
The body was taken to Antioch, and there buried with great pomp.