Simeon the Stylite
Syrian ascetic who lived thirty-seven years atop a pillar, inventor of a form of religious life.
- Late Antiquity
- Syria
- Feast day July 27
- c. 389 – 459
- Hermit
- Monk
Listen to the life 0:41
A shepherd turned monk, Simeon was expelled from his monastery for an austerity his brethren judged unreasonable. He then had a pillar built near Aleppo, first low and later sixteen metres high, and remained on it until his death — praying standing, preaching twice a day to the crowd below, settling quarrels and writing to emperors. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who visited him, described him in his lifetime. His manner founded a school that lasted eight centuries in the East, and the ruins of Qalaat Semaan, built around his pillar, formed one of the largest sanctuaries in the Christian world.
