In the neighbourhood of Amid there were many ascetics about the year
500. One of these, called Simeon (one of the commonest names of the
time), lived indeed as a hermit like the others, yet was of a very
hospitable spirit. When he was alone he mortified himself with the
utmost severity, and ate absolutely nothing for as many as ten days at a
stretch; for, since it is written that where two or three are gathered
together in Christ’s name, there is He in the midst of them (Matt.
xviii. 20), it followed that Simeon by himself was not able to secure
the presence of Christ, and without this he would not eat. If, however,
a strange monk, or monks, arrived, he admitted them over the doorless
wall of his enclosure by a kind of ladder, received them cordially,
washed their feet, and after further proving his humility by secretly
drinking three times of the water with which he had washed them(!), set
wine before them, and the produce of his garden. He then ate with them
and was happy. To laymen and to women he gave food through a hole in the
wall. His garden is said to have grown enough to feed forty people,
although it was only twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad, which may
be believed if we consider that the climate was favourable and the
guests very abstemious. Aided by one or two disciples who were usually
with him, Simeon through the hole in his wall, at different times of the
day, taught children of various ages to read the Psalter and other holy
books. He was evidently a man of cheerful and amiable character, and
worthy of a better vocation.
His most notable disciple was Sergius; he was a zealot _pur sang_. His
special annoyance was the toleration given to the Jews in the village.
“He burned with love for his Lord, and gnashed his teeth” against “the
murderers of God.” With a handful of younger people accordingly he one
night set fire to their synagogue, and burnt it with its books and
trumpets and other sacred objects. As the Jews stood under the
protection of the great church in Amid, to which they paid dues, they
laid a complaint against Sergius before its authorities. But in the
meanwhile he and his people had lost no time in planting, on the site of
the synagogue, a chapel, which they dedicated to the Mother of God; so
that the soldiers sent to restore the Jews to their rights were
helpless, a church once consecrated being inalienable. The Jews now, in
revenge, burned down the cells of Simeon and Sergius; but these were at
once rebuilt by the latter, who also destroyed by night the new
synagogue, now near completion, and carried matters so that the Jews
were completely terrorised. When at last Sergius withdrew from his
master (with whom he had been for some twenty years), to shut himself up
in a low and narrow cell, the Jews took courage to begin building once
more; but the holy man caused his disciples to set fire to this also,
whereupon they desisted from making any further attempt as long as he
lived.
In 520 the emperor, Justin I., took strong measures against the
Monophysites, to which sect our two anchorites belonged. The agents of
the Government left the aged Simeon unmolested, but tried to induce
Sergius to acknowledge the Council of Chalcedon. He, however, received
them with curses, and swore that if they drove him out he would
anathematise them from the pulpit of the great church in face of the
congregation. In spite of the threat, they broke through a wall of his
cell and did drive him out. He took refuge with the pillar-saint Maron,
also a zealous Monophysite, after staying with whom for a short time he
addressed himself to the fulfilment of his oath. Armed with the blessing
of Maron, who at first had dissuaded him from the enterprise, he went on
Sunday to the church when the whole congregation—including many
Monophysites, who joined in the service, though they abstained from
communicating with the other party—was assembled; and while the
preacher was in the middle of his sermon before the “so-called bishop,”
the weird figure of the hermit in ragged sackcloth suddenly made its
appearance. Planting the cross, which he had carried upon his back, in
front of the pulpit, he sprang up the steps, fell on the preacher with
cuffs and abusive language, and flung him from his place. He then
solemnly pronounced from the pulpit an anathema upon the Council of
Chalcedon and on all who accepted its decrees. A great uproar, of
course, ensued. Sergius was arrested and taken into custody, his long
hermit’s beard cut off, and he himself sent in chains to a neighbouring
monastery in Armenia, the monks of which, three hundred in number, were
all zealous partisans of the Council.[100] The Government, we see, was
very gentle with this violent opponent; if the Syrian Monophysites had
gained the upper hand, their treatment of a similar offender would have
been very different. Sergius, however, managed to make his escape three
days afterwards, and finding his way back to Simeon, began to build a
cell beside him. His adversaries, finding themselves unable to scare him
away, left him personally unmolested,—no doubt out of consideration for
the temper of the populace,—and contented themselves with pulling down
what he had built. He now showed the same determination as in his
contest with the Jews, swearing “by Him who built up the world, and who
was called the carpenter’s son,” that he would never cease to renew his
task as often as his work was thrown down; a vow which he kept.
Sergius predeceased Simeon, who, in the closing years of his life had
grown very weak and ill, so as to be no longer able (greatly to his
regret) personally to serve his guests. He died after forty-seven years
of a hermit life. John of Ephesus testifies that God wrought many
miracles by him, but does not go into particulars.