Saint Siméon Stylite
l'Ancien
Ascète en
Syrie (+ 459)
Il est fêté par les Églises d'Orient le 1er septembre. Il figure au 27 juillet au martyrologe romain.
Fils d'un pauvre berger, ermite austère, il fut pris pour un fou par les plus austères ermites de son entourage. Il vécut quelques années au fond d'un puits comme reclus, au sud d'Antioche. Puis il s'enchaîne sur une montagne. Enfin il monte sur une colonne chaque fois de plus en plus haute jusqu'à atteindre 16 mètres. C'est de là qu'il évangélise et converse avec les païens, aimable, courtois et toujours souriant. Le roi de Perse le vénère et lors d'un passage de pèlerins gaulois, il leur fit promettre de porter à sainte Geneviève de Paris ses meilleurs compliments.
"On n'allume pas une lampe pour la mettre cachée sous un boisseau, mais bien sur le lampadaire pour qu'elle éclaire." (saint Matthieu 5.15) disait-il à propos de la colonne où il se tenait.
Un internaute nous signale: "St Symeon se trouve dans la région d'Alep. Dans une région qui se nomme le Mont St Syméon. Un bout de la colonne sur laquelle il a vécu était toujours présent jusqu'en 2011 avant la guerre en Syrie."
Près d'Antioche de Syrie, en 459, saint Siméon, moine, dont la vie et la
sainteté sont admirables; il vécut de longues années sur une colonne, d'où lui
est venu le surnom de Stylite.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/376/Saint-Simeon-Stylite-l-Ancien.html
Saint Siméon Stylite
(† 459)
Voici peut-être le plus
étrange, le plus miraculeux de tous les Saints. Il naquit en Cilicie. Son père
était berger, et lui-même passa les premières années de sa vie à garder les
troupeaux. Il avait treize ans, quand un jour, à l'église, il entendit lire ces
paroles: "Bienheureux ceux qui pleurent!... Bienheureux ceux qui ont le
coeur pur!" Éclairé par la grâce, embrasé du désir de la perfection, il se
met en prière, s'endort et fait un songe: "Il me semblait, dit-il, que je
creusais les fondements d'un édifice; quand je crus la fosse assez profonde, je
m'arrêtai: "Creuse encore!" me dit une voix. Par quatre fois je
repris mon travail et je m'arrêtai, et par quatre fois j'entendis la même
parole: "Creuse encore!" Enfin la voix me dit: "C'est assez!
Maintenant tu peux élever un édifice aussi haut qu'il te plaira." Ce songe
signifiait sans doute l'humilité, base de toutes les vertus et mesure de la
perfection; mais il faisait aussi allusion au genre de vie que devait mener le
pieux jeune homme.
Siméon entre dans un
monastère; là, ses mortifications paraissent si effrayantes, qu'on lui
conseille la solitude. Il se retire dans un désert et passe le Carême entier
sans manger; le jour de Pâques, la Sainte Communion lui rend toute sa vigueur.
Dès ce moment, il prend la résolution de passer ainsi tous les ans le temps du
Carême. Les foules se pressent bientôt autour de lui attirées par ses miracles;
il s'enfuit sur une montagne pour échapper au commerce des hommes; mais le
concours prodigieux s'accroissait tous les jours. C'est alors qu'il se fit
bâtir une colonne qui, s'élevant d'année en année, atteignit enfin la hauteur
de quarante coudées, ou à peu près vingt mètres, sur laquelle il vécut environ
trente-six ans. De là lui vient le surnom de Stylite, mot qui signifie, en
grec, l'habitant de la colonne. Les heures de sa journée étaient partagées
entre la prière, la prédication et les oeuvres de charité; la nuit se passait
presque entière dans les entretiens avec le Ciel. Quelqu'un voulut un jour
compter les inclinations profondes qu'il faisait en la présence de Dieu; arrivé
au nombre de mille deux cent quarante-quatre, il s'arrêta, n'ayant pas la
patience de continuer plus longtemps. Tout est merveilleux dans les détails de
cette vie surprenante; et cependant on n'y trouve rien qui ne montre un homme
conduit par l'Esprit de Dieu et soutenu par la vertu d'En Haut.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_simeon_stylite.html
Saint Siméon Stylite
Né à Sis en Cilicie, il
fut renvoyé de la communauté monastique de Tell-Ada, en Syrie, pour ses austérités
excessives, il devint ermite à Telanissos, où il s’attacha avec des chaînes à
un rocher. Dérangé par les visites des curieux et en quête d’une plus grande
solitude, il s’installa sur une plate-forme d’un mètre carré, au sommet d’une
colonne, dont il augmenta toujours la hauteur jusqu’à vingt mètres. Il y vécut
trente-sept ans et y mourut, ce qui lui valut son surnom de “stylite”,
c’est-à-dire : “monté sur un pilier”. Conseiller d’empereurs aussi bien que de
gens simples, sa renommée s’étendit jusqu’en occident et il exerça une grande
influence sur le concile de Chalcédoine (451). Il est le premier stylite.
SOURCE : http://www.atelier-st-andre.net/fr/pages/oeuvres/fricone50.html
Saint Syméon Stylite
Fête saint : 05 Janvier
Présentation
Titre : Le Stylite
Date : 459
Pape : Saint Sirice ;
saint Léon le Grand
Empereur : Théodose Ier ;
Léon Ier
La vie que saint Siméon
menait en ce lieu était si prodigieuse, que sa réputation vola incontinent par
tout l’univers. Une foule immense accourut autour de lui, les uns pour être
guéris de leurs maladies, les autres pour recevoir de la consolation dans leurs
afflictions et du soulagement dans leurs peines ; d’autres enfin, pour leur
conversion et la rémission de leurs péchés ; et il n’y eut personne qui s’en
retournât mécontent et sans avoir obtenu l’effet de ses demandes.
La Vie des Saints : Saint
Syméon Stylite
Saint Syméon Stylite
A Antioche, saint Syméon,
moine, qui vécut plusieurs années demeurant sur une colonne, ce qui lui a fait
donner le surnom de Stylite ; toute sa vie ne fut qu’une longue suite de
prodiges. 502.
Sommaire
Hagiographie
de saint Syméon Stylite
Hagiographie de saint
Syméon Stylite
Il ne faut pas être
surpris si l’on trouve en cette vie des actions inouïes, et qui semblent passer
toute créance. Dieu n’a pas donné saint Siméon au monde pour être simplement le
modèle des vertus communes, mais pour faire voir, par expérience, jusqu’où son
inspiration et son assistance peuvent porter la faiblesse d’un homme mortel. Il
l’a élevé sur la colonne pour servir, aux anges et aux hommes, de spectacle
d’une vertu plus qu’humaine, et pour être, dans l’ordre de la grâce, ce que
sont les prodiges dans le cours ordinaire de la nature. Théodoret, évêque de
Cyr, qui était son ami particulier, et qui n’a pas oublié sa vie dans son Histoire
des saints Pères, intitulée : Philothée, ou Théophile, déclare que, quoiqu’il
ait vu, de ses propres yeux, les actions merveilleuses qu’il rapporte, et qu’il
ait presque tous les hommes pour témoins de leur vérité, il craint, toutefois,
que la postérité ne les prenne pour des fables, tant elles sont extraordinaires
et au-dessus de toutes nos pensées ; mais nous croyons que notre siècle est
trop prudent et a trop de respect pour l’antiquité pour ne pas ajouter foi à ce
que de grands personnages en ont laissé par écrit ; non pas sur la déposition
d’une ou de deux personnes, mais sur le rapport d’une infinité de témoins, dont
quelques-uns ont été des témoins oculaires.
Cet homme merveilleux
naquit au bourg de Sisan, qui est entre la Syrie et la Cilicie, de parents
pauvres, mais chrétiens. Son père s’appelait Susocion ou Ysicius, et sa mère
Matane ou Marthe. Sa fonction, dans son enfance, était de garder les troupeaux.
Un jour qu’il n’avait pu les mener aux champs à cause de la neige, il entra
dans l’église et entendit ces paroles de la sainte Écriture :
« Bienheureux ceux qui
pleurent, bienheureux ceux qui ont le cœur pur ».
Étant touché de cette
leçon, il demanda à un vieillard ce qu’il fallait faire pour mériter ce
bonheur. Le vieillard lui répondit que le plus sûr était de quitter le monde et
de se retirer promptement dans un monastère. Sur cette réponse, saint Siméon
s’en alla dans une autre église où, s’étant prosterné le visage contre terre,
il pria Notre-Seigneur de lui montrer le chemin de la perfection et de lui
enseigner à faire en toute chose sa divine volonté. Après cette oraison, qui
fut longue, s’étant paisiblement endormi, il eut cette vision : Il lui semblait
qu’il creusait en terre pour faire des fondements et que quelqu’un lui disait :
« Tu n’es pas assez bas,
creuse hardiment, et fais la fosse plus profonde » ;
Et quand il eut encore
foui assez longtemps, on lui réitéra le même commandement : ce qui eut lieu
quatre fois ; ensuite la voix dit :
« C’est assez, travaille
maintenant à élever l’édifice, et la chose te sera facile ; car il faut
premièrement s’appliquer avec une espèce d’opiniâtreté à se vaincre soi-même,
et puis on s’élève facilement à la plus haute perfection ».
Étant éveillé, et se
sentant rempli d’un nouveau courage et d’une vigueur céleste, il courut au plus
proche monastère, gouverné par le saint abbé Timothée. Il y resta prosterné
plusieurs jours de suite, sans boire ni manger, ne demandant d’autre grâce que
celle d’être reçu en qualité de serviteur, destiné aux plus humbles fonctions
de la maison. Ayant été admis au nombre de ceux que l’on éprouvait, il commença
par apprendre le Psautier par cœur, ce qui était la première chose qu’on
exigeait des novices. Il ne pouvait quitter ce livre divin. Il passa là deux
ans dans une extrême austérité et dans une innocence parfaite ; mais, n’y
trouvant pas encore toute la perfection qu’il souhaitait, il en sortit au bout
de ce temps et passa en la solitude de Thélède, près du mont Coryphée, où un
saint abbé, nommé Héliodore, âgé de soixante-cinq ans, et d’une vertu
consommée, gouvernait un couvent de quatre-vingts religieux, dans lequel il
avait été élevé depuis l’âge de trois ans.
Siméon se livra à cet
homme de Dieu, et demeura quelques années avec lui. Il se considérait comme le
serviteur de tout le monde, et prenait plaisir à remplir les fonctions les plus
rebutantes. Son abstinence était si prodigieuse qu’il demeurait depuis un
dimanche jusqu’à l’autre sans manger, distribuant aux pauvres ce qu’on lui
donnait pour sa réfection. Ayant trouvé une corde tissue de myrte sauvage,
sorte de palmier qui est très-rude et très-piquant, il la mit sur sa chair nue
tout autour de lui, depuis les reins jusqu’au cou, et la serra avec tant de
violence, qu’elle scia tout son corps et y fit de grandes plaies. Les vers qui
en tombaient, le sang qui en coulait avec abondance, la puanteur qui en
sortait, découvrirent bientôt ce nouveau genre de mortification. Les frères en
avertirent l’abbé, qui ordonna de lui ôter ses habits : on fut trois jours à
les humecter, tant ils étaient collés par le sang corrompu, avant de pouvoir
les détacher. On trouva que cette corde était déjà si enfoncée dans la chair,
qu’il n’en paraissait que la surface : chacun en eut horreur, d’autant plus
qu’on ne put la lui ôter sans lui causer d’extrêmes douleurs. Il ne voulait pas
qu’on le pansât, afin de porter continuellement en son corps la mortification
de Jésus-Christ ; mais le saint abbé le voulut, et, après qu’il fut guéri, il
le congédia du monastère, de crainte que sa ferveur extraordinaire ne fût un
sujet de scandale pour les plus faibles. Siméon étant sorti, se mit proche de
là dans un puits abandonné et où il n’y avait point d’eau, et y passa cinq
jours en oraison et en des larmes continuelles, s’estimant un très-grand
pécheur. Au bout de ce temps, l’abbé, intimidé par des visions terribles, alla
lui-même le chercher avec cinq de ses religieux, se jeta humblement à ses
pieds, lui demanda pardon, et le pria de revenir au monastère. Le Saint, qui
croyait qu’on l’avait traité selon ses mérites, fut extrêmement confus de cette
action, et quoiqu’il eût souhaité demeurer solitaire, il ne laissa pas de se
rendre à ce qu’on désirait de lui.
Un an après, le
Saint-Esprit, qui l’appelait à de plus grandes choses, le conduisit au pied
d’une montagne, près du bourg de Télanisse, où, s’étant retiré dans une cabane
qu’il fit lui-même, avec de simples pierres, sans mortier, ou qu’il trouva
faite au pied d’une montagne, il y demeura trois ans dans les exercices d’une
vie plus angélique qu’humaine. Il eut dévotion de jeûner quarante jours et
quarante nuits à l’imitation de Notre-Seigneur, de Moïse et d’Elie : il en
communiqua avec un saint prêtre, nommé Bassus, qui présidait tous les prêtres
de la solitude, et qui lui servait de directeur. Ce prêtre approuva son
dessein, pourvu qu’il eût du pain et de l’eau dans sa cellule, afin qu’il ne
parût pas tenter Dieu. Siméon accepta cette condition, mais ces aliments lui
furent inutiles. Il passa toute la quarantaine dans un jeûne continuel, et
cette heureuse épreuve lui donna le courage d’entreprendre souvent la même
chose, mais avec un tel succès qu’au lieu que les premières fois il tombait sur
la fin en défaillance, il devint enfin si fort et si vigoureux, que les
derniers jours il n’avait pas même besoin de se coucher, ni de s’asseoir, ni de
s’appuyer. Il passait les premiers jours de la quarantaine tout debout, à louer
Dieu ; les jours suivants, son corps, affaibli par le jeûne, n’avant plus la
force de se tenir en cet état, il demeurait assis, et disait ainsi son office ;
et les derniers jours, ses forces étant entièrement abattues, et se trouvant
comme à demi mort, il était contraint de se tenir couché par terre. Après un
Carême si nouveau, qu’il termina par la sainte communion, que Bassus lui donna,
il choisit pour sa demeure le haut d’une montagne en Syrie, au-delà du bourg de
Télède. Il s’y fit une clôture avec un petit mur de simples pierres, et
s’attacha au milieu par une chaîne de vingt coudées, dont un bout tenait à une
grosse pierre et l’autre bout à son pied droit ; ainsi, n’ayant point la
liberté de sortir, ni d’antre abri que le ciel, il y élevait continuellement
les yeux pour contempler celui qui est au-dessus du firmament. Mélèce, cet
évêque ou plutôt chorévêque admirable, qui avait alors le soin du pays
d’Antioche, le visita en cette prison volontaire, et apprenant de sa propre
bouche qu’il s’était enchaîné de la sorte pour s’ôter le pouvoir de passer les
bornes de sa clôture, il lui dit que les bêtes farouches avaient besoin de ces
liens, mais que, pour l’homme, c’était assez de la raison aidée de la grâce
pour rattacher. Siméon, comprenant cette vérité, se rendit aussitôt : on fit
venir un serrurier qui rompit son anneau. Mélèce lui fit en même temps enlever
un morceau de cuir velu dont il s’était entouré la jambe, de peur que le fer ne
coupât la peau ; et alors on s’aperçut qu’il était plein de grosses punaises
dont le Saint souffrait la puanteur et les morsures avec une patience
invincible ; cela remplit d’étonnement tous les spectateurs, et principalement
Mélèce et Théodoret.
La vie que saint Siméon
menait en ce lieu était si prodigieuse, que sa réputation vola incontinent par
tout l’univers. Une foule immense accourut autour de lui, les uns pour être
guéris de leurs maladies, les autres pour recevoir de la consolation dans leurs
afflictions et du soulagement dans leurs peines ; d’autres enfin, pour leur
conversion et la rémission de leurs péchés ; et il n’y eut personne qui s’en
retournât mécontent et sans avoir obtenu l’effet de ses demandes. Cela fit que
le concours grossit de plus en plus ; de sorte que son ermitage, selon la
manière de parler de Théodoret, était comme une grande mer d’hommes et de
femmes de toutes conditions, et que les chemins qui y conduisaient
ressemblaient à de grands fleuves qui venaient se décharger dans cette mer. On
y voyait même des pèlerins des endroits de la terre les plus éloignés : des
Ismaélites, des Perses, des Arméniens, des Géorgiens et des Homérites, comme
aussi des habitants de nos régions les plus occidentales, à savoir : de
l’Italie, de l’Espagne, des Gaules et de la Grande-Bretagne. Le même historien,
témoin oculaire, nous en donne des assurances indubitables.
Le saint homme, voyant
cette grande affluence et ne pouvant supporter qu’on s’empressât si fort pour
le toucher et pour couper des morceaux de ces viles peaux dont il était
couvert, s’avisa d’une manière de demeure et de retraite inouïe jusqu’alors, et
qui a fait depuis ce temps-là l’étonnement de tous les siècles. Ce fut de
s’élever sur une colonne haute premièrement de six coudées, ensuite de douze,
puis de vingt-deux, enfin de trente-six. Son disciple Antoine y met cinq
mesures : la première de quatre coudées, la seconde de douze, la troisième de
vingt, la quatrième de trente, et la cinquième de quarante. Et peut être est-il
plus croyable, en ce point, que Théodoret et Métaphraste, qui nous ont donné
les premières mesures, lui qui y était monté et en était descendu si souvent ;
mais cette diversité est de peu d’importance. L’extrémité de ces colonnes était
surmontée d’une balustrade de trois pieds de diamètre, ce qui faisait que le
Saint ne pouvait ni se coucher ni s’asseoir. Que n’ai-je la langue des anges
pour pouvoir dignement représenter la manière dont cet homme céleste vécut sur
ces colonnes, le grand fruit qu’il fit dans le monde et les prodiges
incroyables que Dieu opéra par son moyen ! Il n’avait ni chambre ni abri ; il
était exposé aux ardeurs du soleil, aux rigueurs du froid, à la pluie, à la
neige, à la grêle, aux tempêtes, et à toutes les injures de l’air. On ne peut
pas dire qu’il mangeait, puisque Théodoret assure qu’il ne prenait de
nourriture que de quarante jours l’un, excepté la sainte Eucharistie qu’il
recevait tous les huit jours. Jamais on ne le voyait ni couché ni assis ; mais
il était toujours debout ou le visage prosterné pour prier. Son oraison durait
depuis le soir jusqu’au lendemain à midi, et lorsqu’il parlait debout, il
faisait un nombre infini d’inclinations pour adorer la majesté de Dieu,
jusque-là que quelqu’un de la compagnie de Théodoret en compta en un jour
jusqu’à douze cent quarante-quatre, et enfin, se lassant, fut obligé de quitter
la partie. Aux principales fêtes de l’Eglise, il priait toute la nuit, les yeux
et les mains élevés au ciel, sans qu’on s’aperçût jamais qu’une posture si
gênante le lassât, et sans qu’il fût obligé de l’interrompre.
Ce fidèle disciple, qui a
composé sa vie, rapporte qu’il fut un an entier sans se soutenir que sur un
pied, à quoi il s’était condamné pour avoir inconsidérément levé le pied. Voici
dans quelle circonstance : Malgré l’habitude où il était d’éluder tous les
artifices du démon, Dieu permit, pour le rendre toujours plus humble et plus
vigilant sur lui-même, qu’il fût une fois surpris dans un piège dangereux. Il
crut voir, non l’esprit tentateur, mais un ange de lumière, venir à lui avec un
chariot tout rayonnant de feu céleste. L’esprit s’étant approché, lui dit qu’il
était envoyé de Dieu pour le faire monter et l’enlever dans la gloire qui lui
était préparée. Ce Saint, dénué en ce moment de son discernement ordinaire,
leva le pied pour se mettre dans le chariot ; mais au signe de la croix qu’il
fit pour bénir son départ, tout le fantôme disparut. Il reconnut alors son
erreur, et s’en punit de la manière cruelle dont nous avons parlé. Il endurait
de cuisantes douleurs d’un ulcère qu’il avait à la cuisse ; les vers en
tombaient continuellement ; mais loin de se faire panser, il obligeait
Théodoret de lui ramasser ces vers, lorsqu’ils tombaient en bas de sa colonne,
et les remettait dans sa plaie, leur disant : « Mangez ce que Dieu vous a
donné ». Cet ulcère fut découvert dans la circonstance suivante : un
diacre d’une grande considération l’étant venu visiter, et apprenant qu’il ne
mangeait, ni ne buvait, ni ne dormait, prit la hardiesse de lui demander s’il
était un homme, ou une nature spirituelle qui eût pris seulement l’apparence
d’un homme. Les assistants s’offensèrent de cette demande ; mais le Saint, sans
se troubler, le pria de monter avec une échelle sur sa colonne pour
reconnaître, par sa propre expérience, ce qu’il était. Le diacre y monta, et
saint Siméon, levant le bord de son cilice, lui fît voir cette horrible plaie
qui montrait clairement qu’il était composé de chair et d’os, et sujet, comme
les autres, à la pourriture. Un des vers qui fourmillaient dans cet ulcère
étant tombé, Basilic, roi des Sarrasins, qui était au pied de la colonne,
courut promptement le ramasser et le mit sur ses yeux ; et aussitôt ce ver fut
changé en une perle très-belle et très-fine, qu’il emporta comme un trésor dont
il faisait plus de cas que de son empire.
Les honneurs qu’on
rendait continuellement à saint Siméon n’empêchaient pas qu’il fût
souverainement humble, qu’il ne se regardât comme le dernier de tous les
hommes, et qu’il ne fût prêt à obéir à tout le monde. En voici un exemple
illustre, rapporté par Evagrius, Siméon Métaphraste et Nicéphore Calixte. Les
solitaires voisins, étonnés d’une vie si nouvelle, et craignant qu’elle ne vînt
pas de l’esprit de Dieu, mais plutôt de celui du démon, qui conduit quelquefois
les hommes par des voies extraordinaires pour les précipiter dans l’orgueil,
résolurent entre eux d’éprouver le saint. Ils lui envoyèrent donc deux moines
de leur compagnie, avec ordre de le reprendre de ce qu’il abandonnait ainsi le
chemin que tant de saints Pères avaient frayé, et par lequel ils étaient
indubitablement arrivés au bonheur éternel, pour suivre les inventions de son
esprit et une voie que nul autre que lui n’avait tenue. Ces députés devaient
aussi lui ordonner de descendre de sa colonne ; s’il recevait humblement ce
commandement et qu’il se montrât disposé à descendre, ils ne lui permettraient
pas de le faire, parce que ce serait une marque que son entreprise était de
Dieu ; mais s’il témoignait, au contraire, de la résistance et de
l’opiniâtreté, ils le feraient incontinent descendre, même par force, et
feraient raser sa colonne. Lorsqu’ils furent arrivés vers lui, ils furent
saisis d’un si grand respect, qu’à peine osaient-ils lui parler et le regarder
en face ; néanmoins, pour ne point manquer à leur mission, ils lui firent la
réprimande et le commandement qu’ils avaient charge de lui faire. Aussitôt cet
homme admirable, qui était mort à sa volonté et à son jugement, et qui savait
que Dieu demande plutôt de nous l’obéissance que des victimes, se mit en devoir
de descendre ; il demanda une échelle, s’approcha du bord de la colonne et
témoigna à ces solitaires qu’il leur était extrêmement obligé, à eux et aux
saints Pères qui les avaient envoyés, du soin qu’ils prenaient de lui ; ainsi
il fit paraître qu’il était conduit par l’esprit de Dieu, et que l’humilité et
l’obéissance avaient jeté de profondes racines en son âme. C’était tout ce que
ces députés voulaient reconnaître. Après une si forte épreuve, ils lui dirent
de continuer librement ce qu’il avait commencé, et lui souhaitèrent pour cela
la bénédiction de Dieu et le don de la persévérance jusqu’à la mort.
Cette grande humilité de
saint Siméon était accompagnée d’une modestie, d’une grâce et d’une affabilité
merveilleuses ; il recevait agréablement tout le monde, riches ou pauvres,
grands seigneurs ou artisans, fidèles ou infidèles, et les gagnait tous par la
douceur de ses paroles et par ses regards pleins de bienveillance. Il
satisfaisait à leurs doutes, il accommodait leurs différends, il remédiait à
leurs maux, et personne ne se retirait d’auprès de lui sans être très-content
de sa charité. Le zèle qu’il avait pour l’Eglise et pour le salut des âmes
était admirable. Il prêchait tous les jours deux fois, du haut de sa colonne, à
une infinité de personnes qui s’assemblaient pour l’entendre, et ses discours
ne tendaient qu’à inspirer le mépris de toutes les choses de la terre et le
désir des biens éternels. Il combattait vivement les païens, les Juifs et les
hérétiques, moins pour les confondre que pour les gagner à Dieu, et ses historiens
assurent qu’il convertit des milliers de Sarrasins, de Géorgiens, de Perses et
d’Arméniens, qui demandaient en foule le saint Baptême. Les pécheurs les plus
endurcis étaient attendris en sa présence ; témoin cet insigne voleur et
meurtrier, nommé Antiochus, qui conçut auprès de la colonne du saint, où il
s’était réfugié, une si véhémente contrition de ses crimes, qu’une voix céleste
l’ayant assuré qu’ils lui étaient pardonnés, il mourut de douleur en prononçant
ces paroles :
« Mon Seigneur Jésus-Christ,
Fils unique du Père éternel, qui n’êtes pas venu pour les justes mais pour les
pécheurs, recevez mon esprit entre vos mains ».
Notre Saint prenait même
la hardiesse d’avertir, de bouche ou par lettres, les prélats et les princes de
ce qui était de leur devoir, et ses avis étaient reçus comme si c’eût été un
ange qui les eût donnés. L’empereur Théodose le Jeune déféra toujours beaucoup
à ses avis. Nous avons, dans les actes du concile d’Ephèse, une lettre de ce
prince, par laquelle le même empereur supplie notre saint de travailler à la
paix de l’Eglise, et de faire en sorte que Jean, patriarche d’Antioche, cesse
de soutenir la cause de l’impie Nestorius. L’empereur Léon, qui succéda à
Théodose après Marcien, lui écrivit louchant le concile de Chalcédoine et
l’affaire de Timothée-Elure qui, ayant fait mourir saint Prothère, patriarche
d’Alexandrie, s’était emparé de son siège. Saint Siméon ne manqua pas, en cette
occasion, de faire paraître son grand zèle pour la religion. Il écrivit à
l’empereur pour le confirmer dans le respect envers ce saint Concile et dans la
juste indignation qu’il avait conçue contre ce faux évêque. Il rendit le même
devoir à Basile, patriarche d’Antioche, son propre prélat, mais avec tant
d’humilité, qu’il se nommait en celle lettre un ver vil et abject, et l’avorton
des moines, lui qui en était l’exemple ou plutôt le miracle. Cette sainte
lettre se trouve dans Evagrius et dans Nicéphore. L’impératrice Eudoxie, veuve
du jeune Théodose dont nous venons de parler, s’étant laissée inconsidérément
engager dans l’hérésie des Eutychiens par un moine, nommé aussi Théodose, qui
avait usurpé la chaire épiscopale de Jérusalem, envoya des députés vers notre
saint pour apprendre quel était son sentiment touchant Eutichès et le concile
de Chalcédoine qui l’avait condamné. Il lui répondit avec un courage et une
liberté admirables, que le démon, la voyant si riche fin bonnes œuvres, avait
entrepris de la dépouiller, en corrompant sa foi et en empoisonnant son esprit
par le pernicieux Théodose ; mais que, si elle voulait sortir de ce malheur,
elle devait avoir recours à saint Euthime, qui n’était pas éloigné de Jérusalem
où elle avait choisi sa demeure. L’empereur Marcien se travestit en homme
privé, pour satisfaire avec plus de liberté son ardent désir de voir le Saint
de ses yeux et de l’entendre de ses oreilles. Varanes, roi des Perses, et la
reine, sa femme, lui donnèrent des marques publiques de leur vénération. Les
princes, les princesses d’Arabie venaient recevoir sa bénédiction et laissaient
leurs sujets jouir de la même faveur. Ainsi, ce grand homme servait à tous de
sel, de lumière, de guide, de maître et d’instrument de salut.
Il avait, d’une manière
excellente, le don de prophétie. Un jour, il vit une verge qui menaçait la
terre d’une grande et effroyable calamité. Dieu lui fit connaître que c’était
le signe d’une sécheresse extrême, suivie de la famine et de la peste, qu’il
voulait envoyer au monde pour en punir les crimes. Il en avertit le peuple qui
était autour de sa colonne, et deux ans après, on vit le funeste
accomplissement de sa prédiction. Une autre fois, il vit deux vierges qui
descendaient du ciel, l’une du côté de l’Orient et l’autre du côté du
Septentrion, et il lui fut dit qu’elles pronostiquaient l’irruption des Perses
et des Scythes dans l’empire romain. En effet, ils firent de grands préparatifs
de guerre pour s’y jeter ; mais le Saint fit tant, par ses prières et par ses
larmes, qu’il détourna ou au moins différa ces grands fléaux. Il prédit encore,
en une certaine année, qu’il naîtrait bientôt une si prodigieuse armée de
sauterelles, de hannetons et d’autres insectes, qu’elle couvrirait toute la
campagne, mais que le dommage n’en serait pas si grand qu’on pouvait
l’appréhender. Aussi, quinze jours après, il s’en leva une si grande quantité,
que l’air en était même obscurci ; mais ils ne gâtèrent que les prairies et ne
firent point de tort aux grains qui sont pour l’usage de l’homme. Saint Daniel
le Stylite rapporte un fait encore plus admirable ; car non-seulement saint Siméon
lui découvrit, sur sa colonne, beaucoup de choses qui lui devaient arriver ;
mais aussi, étant encore en vie, il apparut à Daniel sous la forme d’un
voyageur sur le chemin de Jérusalem, où celui-ci allait, pour l’empêcher de
poursuivre sa route, ce qui l’aurait fait tomber entre les mains des
Samaritains ; il l’exhorta à se diriger vers Constantinople, où Dieu voulait se
servir de lui pour de grandes choses ; après sa mort, il lui apparut encore
pour l’assurer de son bonheur et pour lui conseiller de monter sur une colonne
à son exemple. Enfin Théodoret assure qu’il lui prédit à lui-même la fin d’une
persécution dont il souffrait beaucoup, et que cette persécution cessa
précisément au temps que le Saint lui avait marqué.
Il serait trop long de
rapporter tous ses miracles : j’en toucherai seulement quelques-uns des plus
remarquables. Il fit sourdre une fontaine en un lieu sec, où l’on était dans
une extrême nécessité d’eau. Il obtint un fils à la reine des Ismaélites, qui
était stérile, et une fille à la reine des Sarrasins, qui était dans la même
peine. Et cette enfant étant devenue paralytique à l’âge de trois ans, il la
rétablit, par ses prières, dans une parfaite santé. Toute la cour de Perse
reconnut, par un grand nombre de guérisons miraculeuses, la vertu d’une huile
qu’il avait bénite, et son image même, comme nous l’avons déjà dit, faisait
tant de prodiges que chacun en voulait avoir une dans sa maison. Il avait
établi, comme loi inviolable, que les femmes n’entreraient jamais dans son
ermitage, c’est-à-dire dans l’enceinte du mur qui environnait sa colonne, et il
garda même cette mesure rigoureuse à l’égard de sa propre mère, qui avait un
désir extrême de le voir. Cependant, il y en eut une qui eut la témérité de se
déguiser pour violer cette sainte clôture ; mais à peine eut-elle mis le pied
sur le seuil de la porte pour exécuter son dessein, qu’elle tomba morte en
présence de tout le monde, laissant à la postérité un terrible exemple de la
colère de Dieu contre les personnes qui attentent à la clôture des maisons
religieuses.
Lorsque l’heure de sa
mort fut arrivée, il s’inclina, selon sa coutume, pour prier, et, dans cette
posture, il rendit à Dieu son âme bienheureuse qui fut transportée, par les
anges dans le lieu du repos éternel. Il apparut aussitôt après à son disciple
Antoine, et lui assura qu’il jouissait de la gloire. La nouvelle de sa mort
ayant été portée à Antioche, le patriarche, avec trois autres évêques et
Ardabor, chef des gens de guerre, y accoururent avec des soldats pour garder le
saint corps. Les évêques l’ayant descendu de la colonne, le mirent auprès de
l’autel, qui était devant, et où l’on avait coutume de lui dire la messe. La
désolation du pays fut si grande, que l’on entendait, de sept milles de là, les
pleurs des peuples et les cris des animaux. Les montagnes mêmes, les campagnes
et les arbres des environs paraissaient être dans la tristesse, toute la
contrée étant couverte d’une nuée fort obscure, comme d’un manteau de deuil.
Comme on le portait
solennellement à Antioche, il s’arrêta tout court, dans un bourg nommé Méroë,
pour donner lieu à un homme possédé, depuis quarante ans, d’un démon qui le
rendait sourd et muet et le tenait dans les sépulcres, de toucher son cercueil
afin qu’il fût délivré et reçût sa guérison. Toute cette grande ville vint
au-devant de lui, et le déposa premièrement dans l’église de Saint-Cassien,
puis dans une autre qui fut bâtie en son honneur sous le nom de la Concorde ou
de la Pénitence, et il se fit, à son tombeau, plus de miracles qu’il n’y en avait
eu pendant sa vie. L’empereur Léon souhaita de faire apporter ses reliques à
Constantinople ; mais les habitants d’Antioche obtinrent de lui la conservation
de ce grand trésor, trésor qui leur servait de murailles et de remparts, leurs
anciennes fortifications ayant clé renversées par un horrible tremblement de
terre. Néanmoins, nous lisons dans les actes de saint Daniel Stylite, digne
imitateur de notre Saint, qu’on donna à cet empereur quelques parties de ses
reliques, avec la cuculle que le serviteur de Dieu portait sur sa tête. On
bâtit aussi, sur la montagne où saint Siméon avait vécu, un temple magnifique,
en forme de croix, orné de quatre beaux portiques et au milieu duquel était sa
sainte colonne à découvert. II paraissait tous les ans, au jour de sa fête, une
étoile merveilleuse, qu’Evagrius le Scholastique, écrivant plus de cent trente
ans après la mort du Saint, assure avoir vue, comme aussi son précieux chef
encore couvert de sa peau et de ses cheveux.
Il y a deux autres Siméon
aussi Stylites, c’est-à-dire habitant sur des colonnes, dont la mémoire se
célèbre en d’autres jours. Il est fait mention de celui-ci dans tous nos
Martyrologes au 5 janvier, et dans le Ménologe des Grecs au 1er septembre.
Iconographie
Il est tout naturel de
représenter saint Siméon Stylite sur sa colonne : pour le distinguer des autres
Stylites on lui donne une colonne dont les étages soient marqués ; caria
première, sur laquelle il monta, était de six coudées ; la deuxième, de douze ;
la troisième, de vingt-deux, et la quatrième, de quarante.
SOURCE : https://www.laviedessaints.com/saint-symeon-stylite/
Also
known as
Simeon Stylites the Elder
5 January on
some calendars
1
September on some calendars
Profile
Son of a poor shepherd,
and worked as a shepherd as
a child.
A would-be monk at
age 13, he was turned away from monasteries because
his severe self-imposed penances. Tired of the gossip and arguments from
fellow religious,
he lived as a hermit on
top of a column, occasionally preaching to
those who gathered to watch and pray with
him, and starting a movement of pillar-living among Eastern hermits.
Born
c.459 of
natural causes
Additional
Information
A
Character Calendar, by Sister Mary Fidelis and Sister Mary Charitas,
S.S.N.D
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Ecclesiastical
History of Evagrius
Journal
of the American Oriental Society
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Sabine Baring-Gould
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
The
Saint on the Pillar, by Leonora Blanche Lang
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Life
of Saint Simeon the Elder, Stylite, by Theodoret, bishop of Cyr
videos
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
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Readings
Lord God of virtues,
Guide of the wayward, Who sits above the Cherubim and searches the foundations
of the abyss, Who knew Adam before he was; Who has promised the riches of the
Kingdom of Heaven to those who love Thee; Who spoke to Moses out of the burning
bush; Who blessed Abraham, our Father; Who brings to Paradise the souls of the
just and sinks the souls of the ungodly in perdition; Who humbled the lions
before Daniel and mitigated for the three Children the strong fire of the
Chaldees; Who nourished Elijah by the ravens which brought him food and restored
to life Lazarus on the fourth day, receive my mother’s soul in peace, and put
her in the place of the holy fathers, for Thine is the power for ever and ever.
Amen. – Saint Simon’s prayer for
his mother;
text from Prayers of the Saints
MLA
Citation
“Saint Simeon
Stylites“. CatholicSaints.Info. 25 May 2022. Web. 10 January 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-simeon-stylites/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-simeon-stylites/
Lastra
sbalzata del VI secolo di Simeone sulla sua colonna. Cristo è
alla sommità mentre benedice Simeone; il serpente rappresenta le tentazioni del
demonio (Museo del Louvre)
ST. SIMEON STYLITES.
One winter's day, about
the year 401, the snow lay thick around Sisan, a little town in Cilicia. A
shepherd boy, who could not lead his sheep to the fields on account of the
cold, went to the church instead, and listened to the eight Beatitudes, which
were read that morning. He asked how these blessings were to be obtained, and
when he was told of the monastic life a thirst for perfection arose within him.
He became the wonder of the world, the great St. Simeon Stylites. He was warned
that perfection would cost him dear, and so it did. A mere child, he began the
monastic life, and therein passed a dozen years in superhuman austerity. He
bound rope round his waist till the flesh was putrefied. He ate but once in
seven days, and, when God led him to a solitary life, kept fasts of forty days.
Thirty-seven years he spent on the top of pillars, exposed to heat and cold,
day and night adoring the majesty of God. Perfection was all in all to St.
Simeon; the means nothing, except in so far as God chose them for him. The
solitaries of Egypt were suspicious of a life so new and so strange, and they
sent one of their number to bid St. Simeon come down from his pillar and return
to the common life. In a moment the Saint made ready to descend; but the
Egyptian religious was satisfied with this proof of humility. "Stay,"
he said, "and take courage; your way of life is from God."
Cheerfulness, humility,
and obedience set their seal upon the austerities of St. Simeon. The words
which God put into his mouth brought crowds of heathen to baptism and of
sinners to penance. At last, in the year 460, those who watched below noticed
that he had been motionless three whole days. They ascended, and found the old
man's body still bent in the attitude of prayer, but his soul was with God.
Extraordinary as the life of St. Simeon may appear, it teaches us two plain and
practical lessons: First, we must constantly renew within ourselves an intense
desire for perfection. Secondly, we must use with fidelity and courage the
means of perfection God points out.
Reflection. St. Augustine
says: This is the business of our life: by effort and by toil, by prayer and
supplication, to advance in the grace of God, till we come to that height of
perfection in which with clean hearts we may behold God.
SOURCE : http://jesus-passion.com/saint_simeon_stylites.htm
.jpg)
Simeon Stylites icon, before 1667, Church of the Dormition of Our
Lady, Icônes
arabes : art chrétien du Levant, France:
Institut du monde arabe, 2003, pp. 43
St. Simeon Stylites the
Elder
St. Simeon was the
first and probably the most famous of the long succession of stylitoe,
or "pillar-hermits", who during more than six centuries acquired by
their strange form of asceticism a great reputation for holiness throughout eastern
Christendom. If it were not that our information, in the case of the
first St. Simeon and some of his imitators, is based upon very
reliable first-hand evidence, we should be disposed to relegate much of
what history records to the domain of fable; but no modern critic now
ventures to dispute the reality of the feats of endurance attributed to
these ascetics. Simeon the Elder, was born about 388 at
Sisan, near the northern border of Syria.
After beginning life as a shepherd boy, he entered a monastery before
the age of sixteen, and from the first gave himself up to the practice of an
austerity so extreme and to all appearance so extravagant, that his
brethren judged him, perhaps not unwisely, to be unsuited to
any form of community life. Being forced to quit them he shut himself
up for three years in a hut at Tell-Neschin, where for the first time he passed
the whole of Lent without
eating or drinking. This afterwards became his regular practice, and he
combined it with the mortification of
standing continually upright so long as his limbs would sustain him. In his
later days he was able to stand thus on his column without support for the
whole period of the fast. After three years in his hut, Simeon sought
a rocky eminence in the desert and
compelled himself to remain a prisoner within
a narrow space less than twenty yards in diameter. But crowds
of pilgrims invaded
the desert to
seek him out, asking his counsel or his prayers,
and leaving him insufficient time for his own devotions. This at
last determined him to adopt a new way
of life. Simeon had a pillar erected with a small platform at
the top, and upon this he determined to take up his abode until death released
him. At first the pillar was little more than nine feet high, but it was
subsequently replaced by others, the last in the series being apparently over
fifty feet from the ground. However extravagant this way of life may
seem, it undoubtedly produced a deep impression on contemporaries, and the fame
of the ascetic spread through Europe, Rome in
particular being remarkable for the large number of pictures of the saint which
were there to be seen, a fact which a modern writer, Holl, represents as a
factor of great importance in the development of image worship (see
the Philotesia in honour of
P. Kleinert, p. 42-48). Even on the highest of his
columns Simeon was not withdrawn from intercourse with his
fellow men. By means of a ladder which could always be erected against the
side, visitors were able to ascend; and we know that
he wrote letters, the text of some of which we still possess, that he
instructed disciples, and that he also delivered addresses to those
assembled beneath. Around the tiny platform which surmounted the capital of the
pillar there was probably something in the nature of a balustrade,
but the whole was exposed to the open air, and Simeon seems never to
have permitted himself any sort of cabin or shelter. During his earlier years
upon the column there was on the summit a stake to which he bound himself in
order to maintain the upright position throughout Lent,
but this was an alleviation with which he afterwards dispensed.
Great personages, such as the Emperor
Theodosius and the Empress Eudocia manifested the
utmost reverence for the saint and
listened to his counsels, while the Emperor Leo paid respectful attention to a
letter Simeon wrote to him in favour of the Council
of Chalcedon. Once when he was ill Theodosius sent three bishops to
beg him to descend and allow himself to be attended by physicians, but the
sick man preferred to leave his cure in the hands of God,
and before long he recovered. After spending thirty-six years on his
pillar, Simeon died on Friday, 2 Sept., 459 (Lietzmann, p. 235). A
contest arose between Antiochand Constantinople for
the possession of his remains. The preference was given to Antioch,
and the greater part of his relics were
left there as a protection to the unwalled city. The ruins of the vast edifice
erected in his honour and
known as Qal 'at Sim 'ân (the mansion of Simeon)
remain to the present day. It consists of four basilicas built
out from an octagonal court towards the four points of the compass. In the
centre of the court stands the base of St. Simeon's column. This
edifice, says H.C. Butler, "unquestionably influenced contemporary
and laterchurch building to a marked degree" (Architecture and
other Arts, p. 184). It seems to have been a supreme effort of a
provincial school of architecture which
had borrowed little from Constantinople.
Sources
St. Simeon's life is
principally known to us from an account by THEODORET, who was a contemporary;
also from the biography of a disciple Antonius and from a more or less
independent Syriac source. All these materials have been edited by LIETZMANN in
HARNACK AND GEBHARDT, Texte und Untersuchungen, XXXII (Berlin, 1906), no.
4; Acta SS., Jan., I, 234-74. See also DELEHAYE in Revue des
questions historiques, LVII (1895), 52-103; STOKES in Dict. Christ. Biog.,
s.v., Simeon (12) Stylites; HOLL in Philotesia P. Kleinert zum 70.
Geburtstag (Leipzig, 1907). Upon the architecture of Qal 'at Sim 'ân see
BUTLER, Architecture and other Arts of Syria (New York, 1904),
184-93; DE VOGÖE, Syrie centrale, I (Paris, 1885), 141-54; JULLIEN, Sinaï et Syrie (Lille, 1893), 246-61; LECLERCQ in CABROL, Dict. d'arch.
chrét. I, 2380-88.
Thurston, Herbert. "St.
Simeon Stylites the Elder." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 5 Jan.
2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13795a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to
Almighty God for Timothy Meares.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13795a.htm
Szymon
Słupnik – ikona z 2 połowy XVI wieku, pochodząca z Kostarowiec. Miejsce
ekspozycji - Muzeum Historyczne w Sanoku, nr inw. MHS/S/3415
Simeon
Stylites - an icon of second half of the 16th cent. from Kostarowce, Historic
Museum in Sanok, Poland
Simeon Stylites the Elder, Hermit (RM)
Born in Sis, Cilicia (near Nicopolis, Syria), c. 390; died at Telenissus in
459.
Son of a Cilician
shepherd and born on the Syrian border of Cilicia, he was a shepherd in his
childhood. When he was 13 had a vision that he later interpreted as foretelling
his later life on pillars. As a youth Simeon read the Bible and puzzled over
it, especially the Sermon on the Mount. Hearing it in church one day, he asked
a bystander what it meant. He was told that happiness is achieved through the
Cross--through persecutions, humiliations, tears, fastings, vigils, and
continual prayer. Simeon was moved by what he heard and decided to take these
words to heart. From that time onwards he subjected himself to ever-increasing
bodily mortifications and austerities, especially fasting from food.
Following a vision in
which he was exhorted to dig ever deeper in preparing the foundations of a
house, he begged to be allowed to live in a nearby monastery working as the
lowest of all the servants. He proved himself worthy of acceptance by neither
eating nor drinking anything for five days until the abbot, Timothy, told him
to enter. He spent two years there and the monks grew to love him.
But he grew to believe
that the life he had chosen was not rigorous enough, so Simeon then became a
monk at a stricter monastery ruled by Heliodorus at Eusebona (Tell'Ada near
Antioch), where he practiced such severe mortifications that he nearly died. He
ate nothing during Lent and only once a week the rest of the year, but that
isn't what almost killed him. He wore a rope of twisted palm leaves next to his
skin that ate into his flesh, which could only be removed by three days'
treatment of being softened by liquids and then separated by incisions. After
his recovery he was dismissed from the monastery for not obeying the order to
temper his appetite for austerity.
After his dismissal,
Simeon first descended a deep well, and without food or sleep, was brought
again near the point of death. He was rescued by his former comrades of the
monastery, but left them after his recovery because they began to reverence him
as a saint. Thus, ended his 20 years as a monk in northern Syria.
Simeon then moved to a
cell of dry stones and earth at the foot of Mount Teleanissae (Dar Sem'an) near
Antioch. His first Lent alone he spent without any food or drink. A priest,
Bassus, who knew of his plans, left him ten loaves and some water in case of
emergency. These were found untouched at Easter, together with an unconscious
Simeon. He was revived by the Eucharist and a few lettuce leaves.
After three years in this
cell, Simeon moved to the top of the mountain, where he lived in a small
building that had no roof. There he chained himself to a rock, but a
representative of the patriarch of Antioch told him that a firm will, assisted
by divine grace, would enable him to remain in his chosen state without such
artificial aids. Simeon immediately sent for a blacksmith to cut him loose.
It's a good thing that Simeon was not permanently chained to that rock, or he
would not have been able to escape the numerous visitors that interrupted his
solitude, visitors that went so far as to snip off a piece of his tunic to keep
as a relic.
To have accomplished the
great feats of mortification detailed in Simeon's life, he must have been a man
of tremendously robust constitution and fantastic will-power, and equipped with
a capacity for religious devotion and perseverance that exceed all imagination.
Word of his holiness began to attract hugh crowds. They came to seek his
advice, to pray with him, and some just to see him.
Because he could not seem
to escape the world horizontally, he attempted to avoid the distractions of the
crowds by moving vertically. In 423, he erected a ten-foot (about 3 meters)
high pillar in Telenissus (Dair Sem'an) and lived on top of it for about four
years; he spent the rest of his life living on successively higher pillars
(stylites is from the Greek word stylos, meaning pillar), which were no wider
than six feet (2 meters) in diameter at the top; his last pillar was 60 feet
(20 meters) high. At the top of the pillar was a platform with a balustrade,
which has been calculated to have been about 12 feet square.
Lent continued to be a
time of increased penance for Simeon. The first two weeks would be spent
praising God in an upright position; the next two, while sitting; and the last
two, prone, because of weakness from his total fast.
His attempt to find
solitude was futile. Many more people flocked to him--pilgrims and curiosity
seekers, emperors and beggars. He practiced great austerities, slept little if
at all, was clad only in the skins of wild animals, and fasted completely
during Lent for 40 years. Before dawn Simeon would stand with his arms and eyes
raised to heaven in prayer. And talk about praying with your body! Every day
Simeon repeatedly bowed his body in prayer: one visitor counted, it is said,
1,244 prostrations within the day.
He soon became greatly
venerated as a holy man and had extraordinary influence. He preached twice
daily exhorting his endless stream of listeners to greater holiness and
converting many, and was listened to and consulted by all. Men had the
privilege to consult him face to face by climbing a ladder. He was especially
sought out by Bedouin Arab tribesmen who came to him for baptism and spiritual
advice. Disputes among individuals or whole tribes were remedied. Bishop
Theodoretus of Cyrus writes that literally thousands of Arabs from the desert
had been enlightened by his teaching: "I was eyewitness and I heard how
they renounced their native godlessness and accepted the evangelical
teaching."
Simeon was full of
kindliness and sympathy, and his discourses were marked by practical common
sense and freedom from fanaticism. He exhorted positively to sincerity,
justice, and prayer, and denounced swearing and usury with special energy.
Among the crowds were the lame, sick, blind and possessed who obtained cures.
When Simeon saw among the crowd a native of distant Gaul, he entrusted him with
an affectionate message for his sister, Saint Geneviève, the patroness of
Paris.
Those who could not make
the long journey to northern Syria consulted him by letter. He would dictate
his answers to bishops, emperors, and other officials. The Emperor Theodosius
and the Empress Eudocia reverenced him as a saint and listened to his counsels.
The Emperor Leo paid respectful attention to a letter Simeon had written in
favor of the Council of Chalcedon.
Simeon, like many of the
stylites, was completely orthodox in his theology. He was a champion of the
doctrines of Chalcedon. It may be important to note that Simeon lived in a
chaotic age. The Roman Empire had fallen into ruin and Rome itself was sacked
by the Vandals. The Franks followed by Attila the Hun brought destruction in
their wake. Heresies of all sorts--Monophysitism, Manichaeism, Nestorianism and
Pelagianism--were rocking the foundations of the Church. Through all this
Simeon prayed and did penance, like so many other saints for whom God kept the
world going. At this same time Patrick was entering Ireland, Augustine was
writing his City of God, Geneviève was praying and fasting for Paris, and John
Cassian. Only God knows what terrible events would have taken place at that
time had Saint Simeon not done penance and prayed for causes and individuals
who were fighting for the Church Militant. In an age and land of license and
luxury, Simeon bore witness to the claims of virtue and selflessness in so
striking a fashion that no one could fail to see it.
From Saint Simeon, atop
his column uniting heaven and earth, we learn the principle that the children
of God should be "in" the world but not "of" the world. In
Saint Simeon God has given us a concrete and picturesque example of the highest
and most perfect way of serving Him by a combination of the active and contemplative
life. He reminds us that Jesus said Mary had chosen the "better" part
in wishing to remain at his feet; she had not chosen the "best"
part--a combination of contemplation and action; of receiving God's grace and
passing it on. Most of us will not be called to his extreme asceticism, but we
are all called to holiness and to worship.
Simeon was the first of
many stylites, who found that life at the top of a column offered unexpected
advantages: it was conducive to the stability that was so dear to the hearts of
monks in retreat; and it added to his ascetic sufferings. Although stylites
rejected the "world" in the New Testament sense of the word, unlike
the desert monks, the stylites performed a prophetic ministry and were visited
by many people. They preached, gave counsel, reconciled enemies, reproved
sinners and led them to repentance, cast out devils, and often manifested a
gift of prophecy.
Modern Christians have
trouble understanding this kind of asceticism; however, it exemplified the
tendencies of Syrian asceticism in general. The Syrian monks mortified their
bodies by going without rest or simple hygiene, and by taking only enough food to
avoid suicide. Is this insanity? Not if it is understood.
The purpose of such
ascetic practices is to use all their powers to prevent the demands of the body
from interfering with their spiritual aspirations. Clearly the idea that the
body is essentially evil underlay such terrible asceticism; nor is this
surprising in view of the influence Manicheeism had on the attitudes and faith
of the Syrian Christians.
The rule is this: The
more the body suffers, the more the spirit flowers. We can set aside the picturesque
and the eccentric aspect. The prophets, too, had strange ways for the ways of
the Lord are not our ways. We can also set aside the psycho- physiological
aspects--the manifold extensions of the strength of the spirit and the extreme
longevity of the stylites--and concentrate on essentials.
The theory of the
stylites, which they practiced with magnificent heroism, is faithful to the
mystical theology of the Eastern Church, in accordance with which supernatural
peace is to be obtained by blessed tranquility (hesychia) preceded by perfect
temperance (encrateia) and impassiveness (apatheia), or in other words
indifference to the needs and claims of the body. Discipline and asceticism
were the means to attain these. The stylites held, very logically, that the
more severe the discipline, the harsher the asceticism, the greater the hope of
winning the palm that Saint Paul promised to the winner of the race.
Before this first of the
pillar ascetics died on September 2 (or perhaps July 24), he did all these
things. People contended physically with one another to obtain his relics,
which they then carried about for an entire year in celebration of his heroic
virtues. His body was buried at Antioch, accompanied by bishops and many of the
faithful. After his death a monastery and sanctuary were built over the spot,
and amidst the imposing ruins the base of Simeon's column can still be seen
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
The above facts are quite
authentic for they are based on the testimony of eye-witnesses. Simeon's
disciple Antonius recorded the following story:
"The fame of the
holy man increased throughout the world, and they built him a pillar 12 cubits
high, and he stood upon it 12 years. And again they built him a pillar 20
cubits high, and he stood upon it 12 years. Then all that dwelt in that place
came together, and they built two churches beside the pillar, and a pillar 30
cubits high, and he stood upon it four years, and began to do miracles. . . .
And many people he turned to the Christian faith, namely Saracens and Persians
and Armenians and Laotians and the Foreigners. . . .
"And after these
days they again built him a pillar 40 cubits high, and he stood upon it for 16
years until his death. Now at that time there was a exceeding large dragon that
lived close by, in the country to the north: and because of him no grass ever
grew there: and a branch of a tree fell into his right eye. And lo, one day the
blind dragon came, dragging himself along, and he applied himself to the pillar
which was the habitation of the man of God, and winding himself into a wheel as
if to ask pardon, lay with his head bowed low. And the blessed Simeon gazed
down upon him, and straightway, the branch fell out of his eye: and it was a
cubit in length. And indeed all that saw it glorified God, notwithstanding that
they fled from him in terror. But the creature coiled itself up and stayed
quiet in one place, whilst all the people went by. Then rising up, it
worshipped at the gate of the monastery for well-nigh two hours, and so
returned to its den, and did no hurt to any (Antonius).
Of course, in art Simeon
is depicted as sitting on top of a column, often surrounded by many people. He
may be shown as an emaciated hermit holding a column (Roeder). He is the patron
of shepherds (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0105.shtml
Eastern
Basilica of the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites,
Syria
Basilique
orientale de l’église Saint-Siméon-le-Stylite.
Syrie
St. Simeon Stylites,
Confessor
From the account given of
him by Theodoret, one of the most judicious and most learned prelates of the
church, who lived in the same country, and often visited him; this account was
written sixteen years before the saint’s death. Also from St. Simeon’s life
written by Antony his disciple, published genuine in Bollandus, and the same in
Chaldaic by Cosmas, a priest; all three contemporaries and eye-witnesses. This
work of Cosmas has been lately published by Monsignor Stephen Assemani, 1 from
a Chaldaic MS. which he proves to have been written in the year 474, fifteen
years only after the death of St. Simeon. Also from the ancient lives of SS.
Euthymius, Theodosius, Auxentius, and Daniel Stylites. Evagrius, Theodoras
Lector, and other most faithful writers of that and the following age, mention
the most wonderful actions of this saint. The severest critics do not object to
this history, in which so many contemporary writers, several of them
eye-witnesses, agree; persons of undoubted veracity, virtue, and sagacity, who
could not have conspired in a falsehood, nor could have imposed upon the world
facts, which were of their own nature public and notorious. See Tillemont, T.
14.
A.D. 459
ST. SIMEON was, in his
life and conduct, a subject of astonishment, not only to the whole Roman
empire, but also to many barbarous and infidel nations. The Persians, Medes,
Saracens, Ethiopians, Iberians, and Scythians, had the highest veneration for
him. The kings of Persia thought his benediction a great happiness. The Roman
emperors solicited his prayers, and consulted him on matters of the greatest
importance. It must nevertheless, be acknowledged, that his most remarkable
actions, how instrumental soever they might be to this universal veneration and
regard for him, are a subject of admiration, not of imitation. They may serve,
notwithstanding, to our spiritual edification and improvement in virtue; as we
cannot well reflect on his fervour, without condemning and being confounded at
our own indolence in the service of God.
St. Simeon was son to a
poor shepherd in Cilecia, on the borders of Syria, and at first kept his
father’s sheep. Being only thirteen years of age, he was much moved by hearing
the beautitudes one day read in the church, particularly these: Blessed
are they that mourn; blessed are the clean of heart. The youth addressed
himself to a certain old man, to learn the meaning of those words; and begged
to know how the happiness they promised was to be obtained? He told him that
continual prayer, watching, fasting, weeping, humiliation, and patient
suffering of persecutions, were pointed out by those texts as the road to true
happiness; and that a solitary life afforded the best opportunities for
enforcing the practice of these good works, and establishing a man in solid
virtue. Simeon, upon this, withdrew to a small distance, where, falling
prostrate upon the ground, he besought Him, who desires all may be saved, to
conduct him in the paths which lead to happiness and perfection; to the pursuit
of which, under the help of his divine grace, he unreservedly from that moment
devoted himself. At length, falling into a slumber, he was favoured with a
vision, which it was usual with him afterwards to relate. He seemed to himself
to be digging a pit for the foundation of a house, and that as often as he
stopped to take a little breath, which was four times, he was commanded each
time to dig deeper, till at length he was told he might desist, the
pit being deep enough to receive the intended foundation, on which he would be
able to raise a superstructure of what kind, and to what height he pleased.
“The event,” says Theodoret, “verified the prediction; the actions of this
wonderful man were so superior to nature, that they might well require the
deepest foundation of humility and fervour whereon to raise and establish
them.”
Rising from the ground,
he repaired to a monastery in that neighbourhood, under the direction of an
holy abbot, called Timothy, and lay prostrate at the gate for several days,
without either eating or drinking; begging to be admitted on the footing of the
lowest servant in the house, and as a general drudge. His petition was granted,
and he complied with the terms of it with great fervour and affection for four
months. During this time he learned the Psalter by heart, the first task
enjoined the novices; and his familiarity with the sacred oracles it contains,
greatly helped to nourish his soul in a spiritual life. Though yet in his
tender youth, he practised all the austerities of the house; and, by his
humility and charity, gained the good-will of all the monks. Having here spent
two years, he removed to the monastery of Heliodorus, a person endowed with an
admirable spirit of prayer; and who, being then sixty-five years of age, had
spent sixty-two of them in that community, so abstracted from the world, as to
be utterly ignorant of the most obvious things in it, as Theodoret relates, who
was intimately acquainted with him. Here Simeon much increased his
mortifications: for whereas those monks ate but once a day, which was towards
night, he, for his part, made but one meal a week, which was on Sundays. These
rigours, however, he moderated at the interposition of his superior’s
authority, and from that time was more private in his mortifications. With this
view, judging the rough rope of the well, made of twisted palm-tree leaves, a
proper instrument of penance, he tied it close about his naked body, where it
remained unknown both to the community and his superior, till such time as it
having eat into his flesh, what he had privately done was discovered by the
stench proceeding from the wound. Three days successively his clothes, which
clung to it, were to be softened with liquids, to disengage them; and the
incisions of the physician, to cut the cord out of his body, were attended with
such anguish and pain, that he lay for some time as dead. On his recovery, the
abbot, to prevent the ill consequences such a dangerous singularity might
occasion, to the prejudice of uniformity in monastic discipline, dismissed him.
After this, he repaired
to an hermitage at the foot of Mount Telnescin, or Thelanissa, where he came to
a resolution of passing the whole forty days of Lent in a total abstinence,
after the example of Christ, without either eating or drinking. Bassus, a holy
priest, and abbot of two hundred monks, who was his director, and to whom he
had communicated his design, had left with him ten loaves and water, that he
might eat if he found it necessary. At the expiration of the forty days he came
to visit him, and found the loaves and water untouched, but Simeon stretched
out on the ground, almost without any signs of life. Taking a sponge, he
moistened his lips with water, then gave him the blessed Eucharist. Simeon,
having recovered a little, rose up, and chewed and swallowed by degrees a few
lettuce-leaves, and other herbs. This was his method of keeping Lent during the
remainder of his life; and he had actually passed twenty-six Lents after this
manner, when Theodoret wrote his account of him; in which are these other
particulars, that he spent the first part of the Lent in praising God standing;
growing weaker, he continued his prayer sitting; and towards the end, finding
his spirits almost quite exhausted, not able to support himself in any other
posture, he lay on the ground. However, it is probable, that in his advanced
years he admitted some mitigation of this wonderful austerity. When on his
pillar, he kept himself, during this fast, tied to a pole; but at length was
able to fast the whole term, without any support. Many attribute this to the
strength of his constitution, which was naturally very robust, and had been
gradually habituated to such an extraordinary abstinence. It is well known that
the hot eastern climates afford surprising instances of long abstinence among
the Indians. 2 A
native of France has, within our memory, fasted the forty days of Lent almost
in that manner. 3 But
few examples occur of persons fasting upwards of three or six days, unless
prepared and inured by habit.
After three years spent
in this hermitage, the saint removed to the top of the same mountain, where,
throwing together some loose stones, in the form of a wall, he made for himself
an enclosure; but without any roof or shelter to protect him from the
inclemencies of the weather; and to confirm his resolution of pursuing this
manner of life, he fastened his right leg to a rock with a great iron chain.
Meletius, vicar to the patriarch of Antioch, told him, that a firm will,
supported by God’s grace, was sufficient to make him abide in his solitary
enclosure, without having recourse to any bodily restraint: hereupon the
obedient servant of God sent for a smith, and had his chain knocked off.
The mountain began to be
continually thronged, and the retreat his soul so much sighed after, to be
interrupted by the multitudes that flocked, even from remote and infidel countries,
to receive his benediction; by which many sick recovered their health. Some
were not satisfied unless they also touched him. The saint, to remove these
causes of distraction, projected for himself a new and unprecedented manner of
life. In 423, he erected a pillar six cubits high, and on it he dwelt four
years; on a second, twelve cubits high, he lived three years; on a third,
twenty-two cubits high, ten years; and on a fourth, forty cubits high, built
for him by the people, he spent the last twenty years of his life. Thus he
lived thirty-seven years on pillars, and was called Stylites, from the Greek
word Stylos, which signifies a pillar. This singularity was at first
censured by all, as a mark of vanity or extravagance. 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 for stepping down; which the messenger seeing, said, that as he
had shown a willingness to obey, it was their desire that he might follow his
vocation in God. His pillar exceeded not three feet in diameter on the top,
which made it impossible for him to lie extended on it; neither would he allow
a seat. He only stooped, or leaned to take a little rest, and often in the day
bowed his body in prayer. A certain person once reckoned one thousand two
hundred and forty-four such reverences of adoration made by him in one day. He
made exhortations to the people twice a day. His garments were the skins of beasts
and he wore an iron collar about his neck. He never suffered any woman to come
within the enclosure where his pillar stood. His disciple Antony mentions, that
he prayed most fervently for the soul of his mother after her decease.
God is sometimes pleased
to conduct certain fervent souls through extraordinary paths, in which others
would find only dangers of illusion, vanity, and self-will, which we cannot
sufficiently guard ourselves against. We should notwithstanding consider, that
the sanctity of these fervent souls does not consist in such wonderful actions,
or miracles, but in the perfection of their unfeigned charity, patience, and
humility; and it was the exercise of these solid virtues that rendered so
conspicuous the life of this saint; these virtues he nourished, and greatly
increased, by fervent and assiduous prayer. He exhorted people vehemently
against the horrible custom of swearing; as also, to observe strict justice, to
take no usury, to be assiduous at church and in holy prayer, and to pray for
the salvation of souls. The great deference paid to his instructions, even by
barbarians, is not to be expressed. Many Persians, Armenians, and Iberians,
with the entire nation of the Lazi in Colchis, were converted by his miracles
and discourses, which they crowded to hear. Princes and Queens of the Arabians
came to receive his blessing. Vararanes V. king of Persia, though a cruel
persecutor, respected him. The emperors Theodosius the younger, and Leo, often
consulted him, and desired his prayers. The emperor Marcian visited him,
disguised in the dress of a private man. By his advice the empress Eudoxia
abandoned the Eutychian party a little before her death. His miracles and
predictions are mentioned at large in Theodoret and others. By an invincible
patience he bore all afflictions, austerities, and rebukes, without ever
mentioning them. He long concealed a horrible ulcer in his foot, swarming with
maggots. He always sincerely looked upon, and treated himself, as the outcast
of the world, and the last of sinners; and he spoke to all with the most
engaging sweetness and charity. Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, administered unto
him the holy communion on his pillar; undoubtedly he often received that
benefit from others. In 459, according to Cosmas, on a Wednesday, the 2nd of
September, this incomparable penitent, bowing on a pillar, as if intent on
prayer, gave up the ghost, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. On the Friday
following his corpse was conveyed to Antioch, attended by the bishops and the whole
country. Many miracles, related by Evagrius, 4 Antony,
and Cosmas, were wrought on this occasion; and the people immediately, over all
the East, kept his festival with great solemnity. 5
The extraordinary manner
of life which the saint led, is a proof of the fervour with which he sought to
live in the most perfect sequestration from creatures, and union with God and
heaven. The most perfect accomplishment of the divine will was his only view,
and the sole object of his desires; whence upon the least intimation of an
order from a superior, he was ready to leave his pillar; nor did he consider
this undertaking as any thing great or singular, by which he should appear
distinguished from others. By humility he looked upon himself as justly
banished from among men and hidden from the world in Christ. No one is to
practise or aspire after virtue or perfection upon a motive of greatness, or of
being exalted by it. This would be to fall into the snare of pride, which is to
be feared under the cloak of sanctity itself. The foundation of christian
perfection is a love of humiliation, a sincere spirit of humility. The heroic
practice of virtue must be undertaken not because it is a sublime and elevated
state, but because God calls us to it, and by it we do his will, and become
pleasing to him. The path of the cross, or of contempt, poverty, and
sufferings, was chosen by the Father for his divine Son, to repair his glory,
and restore to man the spiritual advantages of which sin had robbed him. And
the more perfectly we walk in his spirit, by the love and esteem of his cross,
the greater share shall we possess in its incomparable advantages. Those who in
the practice of virtue prefer great or singular actions, because they appear
more shining, whatever pretexts of a more heroic virtue, or of greater utility
to others they allege, are the dupes of a secret pride, and follow the corrupt
inclinations of their own heart, whilst they affect the language of the saints.
We are called to follow Christ by bearing our crosses after him, leading at
least in spirit a hidden life, always trembling in a deep sense of our frailty,
and humbled in the centre of our nothingness, as being of ourselves the very
abstract of weakness, and an unfathomed abyss of corruption.
Note 1. Act. Mart.
T. 2. app. p. 229. [back]
Note 2. Lettres
édifiantes et curieuses. [back]
Note 3. Dora Claude
Leauté, a Benedictin monk of the congregation of St. Maur, in 1731, when he was
about fifty-one years of age, had fasted eleven years, without taking any food
the whole forty days, except what he daily took at mass; and what added to the
wonder is, that during Lent he did not properly sleep, but only dozed. He could
not bear the open air; and towards the end of Lent he was excessively pale and
wasted. This fact is attested by his brethren and superiors, in a relation
printed at Sens, in 1731; and recorded by Dom L’Isle, in his History of
Fasting; and by Feyjoo, in his Theatro Critico Universal. [back]
Note 4. Evagrius, l.
1. c. 13, 14. [back]
Note 5. Monsignor
Majelli, a domestic prelate to Pope Benedict XIV., in his dissertation on
the Stylites, or religious men living on pillars, represents the
pillar of St. Simeon enclosed with rails around the top. Whenever he slept a
little, he leaned on them, or his staff. This author shows the order of
the Stylites to have been propagated in the East from St. Simeon,
down to the Saracen and Turkish empires. The inclemency of the air makes that
manner of life impracticable in the West. However, St. Gregory of Tours
mentions one (l. 8. c. 15.) Vulfilaick, a Lombard, and disciple of the abbot
St. Yrier, who leaving Limousin, went to Triers, and lived some time on a pillar
in that neighbourhood. He engaged the people of the villages to renounce the
worship of idols, and to hew down the great statue of Diana at Ardens, that had
been famous from the time of Domitian. The bishop ordered him to quit a manner
of life too severe for this cold climate. He instantly obeyed, and lived
afterwards in a neighbouring monastery. He seems to have been the only Stylite of
the West. See Fleury, l. 35. T. 8. p. 54. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume I: January. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/1/051.html
Golden Legend –
Life of Saint Simeon
Here followeth of Saint Simeon.
Saint Simeon was born in
Antioch and was much virtuous, and from the time that he was in his mother’s
belly he was chosen of God, and when he was twelve years old he kept his
father’s sheep. And on a time he beheld the church, and anon, as he that was
replenished with the Holy Ghost, left his sheep and went to the church. And he
accompanied him with a good ancient man, and said to him in this manner: Fair
father, what thing is that that is here read? I pray you enseign and teach it
me for I am simple and ignorant. Then the good ancient man began to speak of
the virtues of the soul, and how this poor present life ought to be despised,
and nowithstanding that the virtues be accomplished of many truly and laudably,
and by the help of God in religion they be accomplished more lightly. Then
Saint Simeon fell to the feet of this good old man and said to him: Verily from
hence forthon thou shalt be my father and my mother, for thou art master of
good works, and after this good counsel I shall go into the church whereas God
shall ordain for me. And then he expounded to him the rule and order of
religion and told him how he must have much pain and affliction, and him
behoved to have much patience and perseverance. Then anon he took leave of him,
and went to the church of Saint Timothy, and Iaid him tofore the gate and abode
there three days and three nights without meat or drink. Then the abbot came
and lifted him up and demanded Therefore he was come thither. Then Saint Simeon
answered to him and said: I desire much to be servant of our Lord, I pray thee
that thou receive me into thy monastery, and that thou command me to serve all
thy brethren. He was received of the abbot, and was there six months obeying to
the brethren humbly. When the others fasted from morn to evensong time, he
after seven days took his refection, and the other days he gave his provender
to poor people. On a time he came to the pit of the place, and found there a
cord, which he took and bound fast about his body from his reins to his
shoulders; he strained so sore and fast that his flesh rotted under the cord so
much that the cords went to the bones, and unnethe might the cord be seen. On
a day one of the brethren apperceived that he gave his meat unto the poor
people. He and the others told it to the abbot, and also they said that so
great a stench issued out of his body that none might abide by him, and that
the vermin that came out of it had filled all his bed. The abbot was much angry
and bade him despoil him naked, and when he saw the cord he escried, saying: O
man, from whence comest thou? Me seemeth that thou wilt destroy the rule of our
religion, when thou wilt not serve God by discretion as others do. I pray thee
depart hence and go where thou wilt. With great pain they took off the cord
with which he was bounden and healed him. After, he departed from the place
without witting of any of them, and entered into a pit in desert without water,
whereas wicked spirits dwelled. That night the abbot had a revelation that a
great multitude of men of arms had environed the abbey and said with a high
voice: Give to us the man of God or else we shall burn thee and all the abbey,
for thou hast driven away the man just and debonair. The abbot told this to his
brethren, and the next night came the semblable vision. He was all abashed and
sent his monks for to search and fetch him, and they found him not. Then the
abbot went with them and they came to the pit and there made their prayers, and
descended therein, and brought him again by force to the abbey. The brethren of
the abbey kneeled tofore him, and asked him forgiveness. And after, he abode a
whole year, and after, secretly he departed again and went unto a mountain of
stones fast by a cloister and dwelled so three years. Then his neighbours came
thither by devotion and enhanced his pillar four cubits of height, and there he
dwelled seven years after, and after, they made to him another of twelve cubits
of height, in which he dwelled, and after that they made another of twenty
cubits, and after that another of thirty, and there he abode four years, and
beside him he did do make two chapels, and many sick men were healed by his
virtue, and he converted many Saracens to the faith. After this, his thigh
rotted a whole year, and all that year he held him on that other foot, but the
vermin fell to the ground from his thigh. He had a fellow which was called
Anthony, which wrote his life and held him company, which gathered up the
vermin and delivered them to him, and he took them and laid them upon his sore,
saying: Eat ye this that God hath given you.
There was a king, a
Saracen, named Basilike that heard the fame and renown of him, and came to him
in very faith, and whiles the holy man prayed, one of the vermin fell out of
his thigh, and the heathen king took it up, and when he looked on it, it was a
precious stone. Then said to him this holy man: O man this is not happened ne
made by my merit, but it is made by thy faith, and then he thanked God and
departed.
Seven years after, his
mother came and would visit him, but it was forbidden her, for no woman might
enter into that place. Then the holy man said to his mother: Abide a little and
we shall see you if it please God, and she weeping three days and four nights
received her son, and then it happed that she slept, and the holy man prayed
for her and she died. After this there was made to him another pillar of forty
cubits, whereon he dwelled seven years after, that is to wit unto his death.
In which time there was a
dragon right venomous which was in a cave nigh to him, which infected so the
place that nothing grew about him. In whose right eye it happed that a stake
entered, and he came all blind to the door of the monastery and lay there as to
ask help. He set his right eye by the pillar, and was there three days without
doing any harm to anybody. Then commanded Saint Simeon that they should take
earth and lay water on it, and lay it thereupon. And when they had so done,
anon issued out of his eyes a stake of a cubit long, and when the people saw
this miracle they glorified God. But notwithstanding they fled for dread that
they had of the dragon, and the dragon abode there till all the people were
gone. Then he arose and adored at the gate of the monastery almost two hours,
and after went in to his cave without doing harm to anybody.
Another time a woman
drank out of a cruse by night wherein was a little serpent, and it avaled down
into her body, wherefore she went to divers medicine and physicians, but it
availed to her nothing. Many years after, she was brought to this holy man, the
which commanded to take of the earth and water and lay it on the mouth of the
woman, and anon the serpent issued out, which was three cubits long, and anon
cleft asunder, which was hanged up there the space of seven days, many men
seeing it.
On another time many folk
and beasts died for default of water, and at his prayer suddenly the earth
opened, and there was found a pit of right good water for to drink, which
endureth unto this day.
Another time other people
abode long while he was in his prayer, and went a little aback under the shadow
of a tree, and they saw a hart pass by, whom they commanded thus, saying: We
conjure thee by the prayers of Saint Simeon that thou tarry a while, and so he
did, and they took him and slew him, and as they ate of him they became lepers
and mesels. Then they went with the skin unto Saint Simeon and were there two
years, and unnethe might they be healed, and
for witness thereof they hung up the skin of the hart.
There was a leopard there
about, which destroyed the people of the country. Then this holy man commanded
to take of the water of that monastery and to sprinkle it on the ground all
about whereas he went, and when they had so done, anon after they found the
leopard dead. He exhorted all them that he knew that they should not swear by
him, humble sinner, nevertheless all they of the Orient, and the barbarians of
that country sware by him.
There was a thief named
Jonathas, which was chased of many knights, and he entered into the monastery
and embraced the pillar, and began to weep. Then Saint Simeon demanded what he
was, and he answered: I am Jonathas the thief, that am come hither to do
penance; and anon came thither the officers of Antioch, and said to this holy
man: Give us this evil man, for the beasts be ready to devour him. Then Saint
Simeon answered: I may not, for I doubt that he that sent him to me, which is
greater than ye, will be wroth. And seven days long he embraced the pillar, and
after, said to the holy man: If thou wilt I will go my way. Then he said to
him: Wilt thou go yet for to do harm? He answered: Nay sir, but my time is
accomplished. And so saying he gave up his soul and died.
And Saint Simeon inclined
down to make his prayer like as he had been accustomed, and the people abode
him three days for to have his blessing. Then Anthony came to him saying: Arise
up, sir, and give us thy blessing; and he went, and heard him not drawing his
breath, but an odour as of a precious ointment issued out of his body. Then he
began to weep strongly, kissing his eyes and his beard, and said: Alas, sir!
why hast thou forsaken me? I never heard thy doctrine angelic, what answer
shall I give to the sick people that shall require thee? Ne of what covering
shall I cover thy body? And there by force of heaviness fell asleep. Then
appeared to him this holy man, saying: I shall not leave this house ne this
holy mountain in which I have been enlumined, but go down and sanctify and
appease the people, and show in Antioch that I am in rest. And cease not thou
to serve God in this place here, and God shall render and give to thee a good reward.
Then he awoke, and began strongly to weep again, in saying: What relics shall I
take of thee, sir, in remembrance of thee? Then he removed the body much
strongly, and then had Anthony much more dread, and durst not touch him, but
went down anon, and went unto Antioch to the bishop, and told him of the death
of this holy man, and anon he came with three other bishops and the master of
the knights of the town, and hung curtains about the pillar, and bare his body
by the altar tofore the pillar. And anon the birds assembled about the pillar
and Rew like as they would have asked their meat, and cried so strongly that
men and beasts enforced them to cry and weep at the voice of the birds. The
mountains and the fields showed signs of heaviness, so that the complaint was
heard seven miles, and there came thereabout a cloud black and dark, and
Anthony saw an angel come from heaven for to visit, which had his face clear as
fire, and his vestments white as snow. And about ten of the clock he saw seven
ancient men that spake to him, but he knew not the mystery that they said. The
prelate of Antioch would have had his beard to put in his relics, and as soon
as he put his hand for to take it, anon his hand was dry, but they made there
so many prayers for him that he was healed. Then bare they the body into
Antioch, and the bishop sware that never person should have nothing of his
body. When they were come into a street, that was called Merce, five miles from
Antioch, the body abode there, so that no man might move it.
A man that had been deaf
and dumb the space of forty years because he had defiled a woman in his house,
which woman loved him not, he came and fell down tofore the bier suddenly, and
began to cry and say: Ah! man and servant of God, thou art welcome to point for
me, for thy coming hath guerished me and given to me health. Then he arose and
took one of the staves that bare the bier and anon was all whole, and served
him all the days of his life. Anon issued out of the town all the people of
Antioch, and received the body much solemnly in singing, psalmonising and
glorifying God, and with great plenty of lights burning, bare the body into the
great church, which is called the church of penance. Many other miracles hath
our Lord showed at his sepulchre, and more were showed after than tofore by his
life. Then let us pray to this holy Saint Simeon that he pray for us unto our
Lord that he have mercy on us. Amen.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-life-of-saint-simeon/
San Simeone Stilita il Vecchio
Sis, Cilicia, 390 circa –
Qal'at Sim'an, Siria, 2 settembre 459
Viene chiamato il vecchio
per distinguerlo da un omonimo stilita che visse più di un secolo dopo di lui.
Nacque nel 389 al confine tra Cilicia e Siria. Trascorse l’infanzia pascolando
il gregge di famiglia, quindi entrò nel monastero di Teleda, dove si fermò una
decina d’anni sostenendo dure mortificazioni e digiuni. Invano i superiori
invitarono il giovane alla moderazione e quando l’abate scoprì che portava
sulla pelle un cilicio di palme così ruvido da procurare ferite e
sanguinamenti, lo allontanò dal cenobio. Simeone si rifugiò allora per breve
tempo in una cisterna prosciugata, poi si spostò in una minuscola cella a
Telanissos a nordest di Antiochia, dove digiunò per l’intera Quaresima
sopportando la fame e la sete. Salì poi su una montagna vicina, e per essere
sicuro di non allontanarsi si fece legare il piede con una catena a una roccia.
Solo l’intervento del vescovo di Antiochia riuscì a convincerlo a liberarsi da
quel vincolo doloroso. L’ascesi straordinaria di Simeone piaceva alla gente dei
dintorni, che accorreva numerosa. Il monaco si fece allora costruire una
colonna che terminava in un podio con una balaustra di circa un metro di
diametro. Lì egli passava il suo tempo assorto in preghiera. Due volte al
giorno si rivolgeva poi ai visitatori dirimendo liti, operando guarigioni e
altri miracoli. Una predicazione semplice che faceva grande impressione sulla
gente, che accorreva sempre più numerosa. Lo straordinario carisma dello
Stilita procurò numerose conversioni anche tra gli arabi. Morì nel 459 all’età
di circa 70 anni. Era tanta la fama di questo campione dell’ascesi che diversi
gruppi cercarono di trafugare la salma per venerarla.
Etimologia: Simeone = Dio
ha esaudito, dall'ebraico
Martirologio Romano:
Vicino ad Antiochia in Siria, san Simeone, monaco, che visse per lunghi anni su
una colonna, assumendo per questo anche il nome di Stilita, uomo di vita e di
condotta degne di ammirazione.
Notizie abbastanza dettagliate su questo santo stilita ci sono pervenute dalla testimonianza oculare di Teodoreto, vescovo di Ciro e storico imparziale, che fu suo intimo amico. La sua strana forma di ascetismo, assai discussa sin dai suoi tempi, oggi non sarebbe assolutamente più compresa. Non si può tuttavia negare che tale specialissima vocazione si sia rivelata utile all’edificazione del popolo e per la difesa della fede.
Simeone nacque a Sis, in Cilicia, verso l’anno 380, da una famiglia di poveri pastori. Nell’infanzia sua unica occupazione fu la custodia del gregge. Un giorno, non essendo potuto andare al pascolo a causa della neve, si recò in chiesa ove rimase emozionato udendo la lettura delle beatitudini evangeliche. Chiese allora ad un vegliardo come fosse possibile conseguire la felicità che esse promettevano e questi gli suggerì di abbandonare senza esitazioni il mondo. Simeone entrò allora in un’altra chiesa e, prostrato per terra, pregò a lungo il Signore perché gli mostrasse la sua volontà. Addormentatosi, in sogno gli sembrò di scavare le fondamenta di una casa: tra una sosta e l’altra, una voce più volte lo ammonì: “Scava più a fondo”. Quando le fondamenta raggiunsero una certa profondità, la medesima voce gli disse: “Adesso puoi costruire l’edificio all’altezza che vorrai”.
Desiderando vincere se stesso e raggiungere la perfezione, Simeone decise di rinchiudersi in un monastero, dove condusse una vita innocente ed improntata ad una dura austerità, dedito agli uffici più umili. Siccome però aspirava ad una perfezione ancora più alta, due anni dopo si trasferì nella solitudine di Teleda per una decina d’anni. Qui i suoi compagni mangiavano ogni due giorni, egli invece passava tutta la settimana senza assumere cibo. I poveri erano i beneficiari della sua razione. L’abate Eliodoro, non approvando quella sua singolarità, tentò invano di moderarlo. Un giorno Simeone si strinse fortemente attorno al corpo una corda tessuta di mirto selvatico, tanto da provocare vistose piaghe e dopo alcuni giorni fu scoperto per il sangue che perdeva ed il fetore che emanava. Furono necessarie varie cure e, appena guarì, l’abate lo congedò dal monastero, affinché quello straordinario fervore non inducesse altri ad imitarlo.
Simeone si rifugiò in un pozzo asciutto ed in esso pregò e pianse di continuo, credendosi un grande peccatore, finché l’abate cinque giorni dopo lo mandò a richiamare, pentito del cattivo trattamento che gli aveva riservato. Un anno dopo, però, uscì definitivamente dal monastero per stabilire la sua dimora in una capanna a Teli Nesim, nei pressi di Antiochia, sotto la direzione del sacerdote Basso. Essendovi giunto al principio della quaresima, si propose di trascorrerla nel più assoluto digiuno, ma il suo maestro si oppose, considerando un simile progetto una tentato suicidio . Infine si fece murare nel tugurio con soli dieci pani ed una brocca d’acqua. Al termine della quaresima Simeone giaceva per terra senza voce e senza movimento, ma dopo aver ricevuto la comunione riacquistò le forze. Per ben ventotto anni puntualmente egli rinnovò questo terribile digiuno quaresimale.
Dopo aver trascorso tre anni in quella misera cella, Simeone salì sulla vicina montagna e, per darsi alla contemplazione, si fece legare una catena ad un piede, infissa nella roccia del recinto che si era fatto costruire a ridosso del monte. Melezio, vescovo di Antiochia, visitando Simeone nella volontaria prigione, si permise di fargli notare che in tale maniera atroce venivano legate soltanto le bestie feroci. Il santo si propose allora di tendere alla perfezione con la forza della volontà e nel rompere la catena, il cuoio villoso che gli proteggeva la carne apparve anche agli occhi di Teodoreto pieno di cimici: Simeone ne aveva sopportato i morsi con un’invincibile pazienza.
La vita straordinariamente penitente praticata dal santo, nonché i miracoli da lui operati, attirarono una folla immensa di pellegrini. Trovando esagerati gli atti venerazione nei suoi confronti, ritenne allora opportuno relegarsi sopra ad una colonna e successivamente altre tre di altezza sempre superiore. La colonna era sormontata da una balaustrata di un metro circa di diametro, sprovvista di alcun riparo dalla pioggia o dal sole. Lo stilita non poteva dunque né sdraiarsi, né sedersi. Ogni settimana riceveva la comunione ed ogni quaranta prendeva un po’ di cibo. In tal modo rimase pur sempre esposto agli sguardi della folla, apparendo come un modello di sovrumana fortezza e di costanza. Simeone si rivolgeva con semplicità al popolo due volte al giorno, dopo nona, per rendere giustizia ai litiganti, per ricordare la necessità del distacco dai beni terreni ed i terribili castighi riservati agli ostinati peccatori. Il resto della giornata lo riservava alla preghiera. Convertì molti saraceni, persiani, georgiani e armeni. Sempre con dolcezza combatté inoltre gli errori dei giudei, degli eretici e dei pagani.
Simeone godette della fama di taumaturgo e di profeta. Nessuno si allontanò da lui senza essere consolato: fece scaturire una sorgente di acqua in una località che ne era priva, ottenne figli alle regine dei saraceni e degli israeliti, predisse guerre e carestie, ridonò la salute a tanti infermi. L’imperatore San Teodosio II il Giovane lo supplicò di lavorare per il bene della Chiesa e di fare in modo che Giovanni, patriarca di Antiochia, cessasse dal sostenere la causa dell’eretico Nestorio. L'imperatore San Leone I il Grande gli scrisse invece riguardo al concilio di Calcedonia ed a Timoteo Eluro, impadronitosi del patriarcato di Alessandria uccidendo San Proterio. Da parte sua Simeone rammentò ai prelati ed ai principi i loro doveri, pur considerando se stesso “un vile e abietto verme e l’aborto dei monaci”. Alla vedova di Teodosio II, Santa Eudossia, che gli chiese un parere sull’eretico Eutiche e sul concilio di Calcedonia, egli consigliò di ricorrere a Sant’Eutimio il Grande.
Il disprezzo che Simeone aveva sempre nutrito per il proprio corpo, lo rese insensibile ai dolori cagionatigli dalle piaghe, ma ebbe comunque il presentimento della sua ultima ora. Ricevette l’ultima volta l’Eucaristia per mano di Domno, patriarca di Antiochia. Infine, il 2 settembre 459 l’eroico penitente rese la sua anima a Dio, mentre s’inchinava sulla sua colonna come era solito fare per iniziare la sua preghiera. Alla notizia del decesso, il patriarca di Antiochia ed altri sei vescovi, nonché il capo della milizia Ardaburio con ben seicento soldati, si recarono ai piedi della colonna. Tre vescovi vi salirono e baciarono le vesti dello stilita recitando salmi. Il suo corpo venne posto in una bara di piombo. I saraceni accorsero armati tentando d’impadronirsene, ma Ardaburio si oppose fermamente. Una enorme folla accorse attorno alla colonna con profumi, ceri e fiaccole. Il corpo di Simeone venne allora collocato sopra un altare di marmo, eretto dinnanzi alla colonna, e tutti i vescovi lo baciarono devotamente. Il feretro, deposto sopra un carro, fu poi trasferito ad Antiochia. L’imperatore Leone I avrebbe poi voluto fare trasportare le reliquie a Costantinopoli, ma dovette desistere dal suo progetto per le suppliche degli antiocheni. Sul sepolcro del santo iniziarono a verificarsi più miracoli di quanti non ne avesse compiuti in vita. Un magnifico tempio a forma di croce con un quadriportico, del quale rimangono le rovine, fu invece eretto a Qal'at Sim'an attorno alla colonna sulla quale Simeone aveva compiuto tante penitenze.
Discepolo ed imitatore di Simeone fu lo stilita San Daniele, che introdusse gli stiliti a Costantinopoli. Commemorato in data 27 luglio dal Martyrologium Romanum, San Simeone Stilita è detto “il Vecchio”, onde distinguerlo dal santo omonimo vissuto nel secolo successivo, monaco in Siria, che visse per ben sessantotto anni su una colonna, tanto da meritarsi anch’egli il soprannome “stilita” ed è dunque noto come San Simeone Stilita il Giovane. Il santo odierno, solitamente festeggiato invece in oriente al 1° settembre, viene talvolta confuso od identificato con San Simeone di Egee.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92842
Rovine
della Chiesa di San Simeone con i resti della sua colonna.
Den hellige Simeon Stylitt
(den Eldre) (~390-459)
Minnedag: 5.
januar
Den hellige Simeon
Stylitt (Stylites) eller Simeon Syreren ble født ca år 390 i Sis (Sisan, Sesan)
på den syriske grensen til Kilikia, det nåværende Tyrkia. Han var sønn av
velstående kristne bønder. Allerede som gutt viste han stor intelligens, men
også en lengsel etter fullkommen kontroll over kroppen. Han leste i Bibelen og
funderte over den, spesielt der hvor Jesus i Bergprekenen snakker om hvordan
lidelse kan bringe stor lykke. Han påla seg selv stadig strengere legemlige
botsøvelser, især faste. I vel tjue år skulle han nå komme til å leve i
forskjellige eremittsamfunn og klostre i det nordlige Syria.
Frem til han var 13 år
var han gjeter for familiens dyr, og fikk derfor ingen utdannelse. Da fikk han
en visjon hvor han ble bedt om å grave stadig dypere for å lage fundamentet til
et hus. Dette tolket han som et kall til et hellig liv, så han gikk til et
kloster i nærheten og ba om å bli opptatt der som en tjener. Han ble der i to
år, men han fant regimet der for slapt og til og med de strengeste munkene anså
hans botsøvelser som overdrevne. Derfor sendte de ham ca 403 bort til et
kloster styrt av Helidorus i Eusebona (det moderne Tell'Ada) ved Antiokia.
Der ble han i ti år og
han fortsatte å «speke sitt kjød» i stadig økende omfang. Han gikk ut over de
tre vanlige fastedagene i uken og tok til seg næring bare på søndager. I ukevis
mediterte han i trange hull i jorden eller i brønnsjakter. Til slutt førte hans
drastiske botsøvelser til at han nesten døde, etter å ha båret et tau av
flettede palmegrener så tett inntil kroppen at det hadde gnagd seg inn i
kjøttet. Det tok tre dager med omhyggelig bløtlegging og skjæring før det ble
fjernet og han ble reddet. Men da han var blitt helt frisk, bestemte abbeden
seg for å vise ham bort som en advarsel mot slik ekstrem og individuell askese.
Året var ca 412.
Han flyttet til Dair
Sem'an ved foten av fjellet Telanissus, nordøst for Antiokia (i dag Antakya i
Sørøst-Tyrkia). Der tilbrakte han sin første fastetid innemurt uten noe mat
eller drikke. Presten Bassus visste om hans planer, og etterlot ham ti brød og
litt vann for nødstilfelle. Disse ble funnet urørt til påske mens Simeon lå
bevisstløs. Han livnet til igjen av eukaristien og ved å spise et par
salatblad. Her tilbrakte Simeon tre år, og hver fastetid lot han seg mure inne
uten noen næring.
Deretter flyttet han ca
415 til toppen av fjellet, etter ham kalt Kalat Siman, hvor han smidde seg fast
til fjellet i en lenke og bodde i en liten bygning uten tak. Her ble han i tre
år. Men en eremitt lyktes sjelden å være lenge alene, spesielt når de som Simon
fikk rykte for å være hellig. Snart samlet folk seg rundt ham, mest
nysgjerrige, men også slike som vil lære av ham hvordan man gjør bot og hvordan
man lever for Gud.
Da forsto Simeon at den
perfekte ensomheten var midt i folkevrimmelen. Derfor bega han seg ca år 423
til storbyen Aleppo i Nord-Syria. I Kal'at Sim'an (Qalaat Seman) i byens utkant
fant han den første av de etter hvert berømte søylene, hvor han skulle
tilbringe de siste 36 år av sitt liv.
Simon Stylitten var den
første og mest berømte av søyleasketene (gresk: stylos = søyle). Om noen av de
gamle eremittene fortjener adjektivet «utrolig» er det Simeon. Han flyktet ikke
ut i ørkenen, men opp i høyden. Stylittene var på noen måter det kristne
tilsvar til de østlige fakirene. Ingen fantasi i verden kan tenke ut noe slikt,
og den utrolige historien er ren historisk sannhet, bekreftet av utallige
øyenvitner, noen av dem skrev ned sin historie.
Den første søylen var ca
tre meter høy og hadde en diameter øverst på ikke mer enn to meter, og der
bodde han i fire år. Den andre var dobbelt så høy, og ble hans hjem i tre år.
Den tredje var ti meter høy; der bodde han i ti år, og den fjerde og siste,
bygd av folket, var atten meter høy (like høy som Olav Tryggvasons søyle på
Torget i Trondheim!). Her bodde han de siste tjue år av sitt liv.
På toppen av søylen var
det en plattform som er beregnet til å ha vært 13-14 kvadratmeter. Det fantes
ikke annet enn et rekkverk rundt kanten som hindret ham i å falle utenfor. Det
er spøkefullt blitt sagt at «da han oppga håpet om å flykte fra verden horisontalt,
forsøkte han å flykte fra den vertikalt».
Det motsatte ble
selvfølgelig resultatet: Mange flere mennesker kom til ham, både pilegrimer og
rene turister, ja, selv keiserne Theodosios, Leo og Marcian kom for å be om
hans råd. Keiser Marcian (450-57) hadde etter den hellige pave Leo Is ønske innkalt
et konsil til Kalkedon i 451, og han kom da for å søke Simeons råd. Det kom
nysgjerrige helt fra Atlanterhavets kyst, fra Spania og til og med fra de
britiske øyer, og det kom regelrette pilegrimstog fra Persia og Etiopia for å
se den hellige, og han fikk brev fra hele den kristne verden og dikterte
utallige svarbrev.
Tusentalls nysgjerrige
beleiret dag og natt søylen for å bevitne hvordan han tygde på sitt daglige
salatblad. For bare en gang i uken fikk han heist opp litt mat, og bare sjelden
unnet han seg søvn. Dag og natt tilbrakte Simeon på søylen, uten ly mot sol
eller regn, hete eller kulde, i streng faste og gjerne med armene utstrakt i bønn.
Hver dag bøyde han hodet gjentagne ganger i bønn; en besøkende talte til 1244
ganger på én dag.
To ganger pr dag sto han
til tilhørernes rådighet, underviste, formante og besvarte spørsmål. Han var
full av vennlighet og medfølelse, og hans samtaler og belæringer var praktiske,
preget av sunn fornuft og fri for fanatisme, til tross for den ekstreme måte
han selv levde på. Han advarte mot sverging, gambling og åger, og ba menneskene
heller vende sin oppmerksomhet mot rettferdighet, bønn og nestekjærlighet. Han
ble anledning til at mange hedninger omvendte seg til kristendommen etter å ha
sett og hørt ham, særlig blant de arabiske beduinene.
Hans ry ble spredt langt
utenfor Syria, og folk som ikke kunne gjøre den lange reisen, konsulterte ham
pr. brev. I en tidsalder og et land med tøylesløshet og luksus vitnet Simeon om
kravet om godhet og uselviskhet på en så slående møte at ingen kunne unngå å
legge merke til det. Han ga et unikt og vedvarende vitnesbyrd om behovet for
bot og bønn, men hans måte å leve på var samtidig utfordrende, frastøtende og
ærefryktinngytende. Fastetiden var alltid en tid for ekstrem askese, og i de
siste 40 årene av sitt liv spiste han aldri under fasten. De to første ukene
lovpriste han Gud oppreist, de to neste sittende, de to siste liggende på grunn
av den økende utmattelsen etter den totale fasten.
Det sies at de strenge
munkene i et nærliggende kloster ville finne ut om Simeon kanskje ble drevet av
åndelig hovmod til å vise frem sin botgjøring på en så uvanlig måte. Derfor
sendte de den yngste novisen til ham med befaling om umiddelbart å klatre ned. Uten
et ord slapp Simeon ned en taustige og begynte å klatre ned. «Du får bli der du
er», sa novisen, «din lydighet beviser at du er drevet av Guds Ånd».
I år 459 døde han, noen
kilder sier 25. juli, andre 1. september (2. september og 24. juli nevnes
også). Han døde knelende på sin søyle, tilsynelatende i bønn; det tok tre dager
før tilskuerne skjønte at han var død. Det brøt ut alvorlig uro med kamp om den
helliges legeme, og myndighetene måtte gripe inn. Han ble gravlagt i Antiokia,
fulgt av provinsens biskoper og mange av de troende.
Keiser Zenon (474-91)
bygde et kloster på stedet hvor han hadde levd, og rundt søylen ble det bygd
den prektige valfartskirken Kalat Simân, som med sin lengde på 100 m og bredde
på 88 var en av den kristne oldtidens største kirker. Midt i de imponerende
ruiner kan foten av en søyle ennå ses, angivelig Simeons. Søylen var omgitt av
en oktogonal plass som ble omsluttet av fire treskipede basilikaer.
Det gikk ikke lenge før
det sto menn oppe på søyler overalt i den syriske ørken; selv askese kan bli en
motesak. De mest berømte av Simeons etterfølgere var de hellige Simeon Stylitt
den Yngre (d. 592) og Daniel Stylitt (d.
493). Simeons eksempel har alltid siden vært forlokkende for etterfølgere; enda
på 1800-tallet fantes det stylitter. I Meteora i det sentrale Hellas finnes det
fremdeles klostre som ligner moderne arvtakere etter stylittenes søyler -
med hvert sitt hus kneisende på toppen av en massiv bergtind.
Simeons fest er den 5.
januar i vest, mens han i øst minnes den 1. september. Hans navn står i
Martyrologium Romanum. Deler av hans ben kom til Konstantinopel, og det
befinner seg relikvier i Firenze og Venezia. Simeon fremstilles nesten alltid
på sin søyle.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Jones, Bentley, Benedictines, Delaney,
Engelhart, Schauber/Schindler, Melchers, LThK, Gorys, Dammer/Adam -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/sstylite
Simeon de Styliet (ook van
Antiochië, de Grote, van Mandra, de Pilaarheilige of Stylites) Sr (ook de
Oudere), Antiochië, Syrië; kluizenaar; † 459.
Feest 5 januari &
29 juni (sterfdag?) & 24 (sterfdag?) & 27 juli (jakobieten) & 1
(Griekse en Byzantijnse kerk) & 2 september (vooravond sterfdag?).
Hij werd rond 389 geboren te Sis (in de provincie Cilicië = Zuid-Oost-Turkije). Aanvankelijk hoedde hij de schapen van zijn ouders. In 410 trad hij in bij het klooster Eusebona bij Teleda, maar hij werd er in 412 uit gezet. Dat kwam zo. Hij had een touw zo strak om zijn middel gebonden, dat het in zijn vlees sneed en volkomen vergroeide met zijn lichaam. De wond etterde en stonk afschuwelijk. Toen dat aan het licht kwam, hebben zijn medebroeders hem ervan bevrijd en vervolgens weggestuurd, omdat ze zulke uitzinnige boeteplegingen niet in hun midden duldden.
Hij trok zich terug als kluizenaar bij het klooster Telanissus (Deir Sim'an, het latere zuilenheiligdom tussen Antiochië en Haleb [= Aleppo] in Syrië). Soms vastte hij veertig dagen; dan dronk hij slechts een mengsel van water, azijn en zout. Toen de toeloop van pelgrims te groot werd, koos hij in 423 voor het leven op een pilaar (eerst een van drie meter, later een van tussen de zestien en achttien meter hoog).
Hier woonde hij zevenendertig jaar lang. Grote menigten kwamen naar zijn preken luisteren. Zijn voorbeeld om tussen hemel en aarde te leven vond navolging en zo ontstonden de pilaarheiligen (stylieten). Als deze berichten niet zouden zijn bevestigd door grote tijdgenoten, zouden wij ze waarschijnlijk naar de categorie van wonderverhalen hebben verwezen.
Over zijn sterfdag verschillen de bronnen: genoemd worden 29 juni, 24 juli en 3
september.
Verering & Cultuur
Kort na zijn dood werd de plaats waar hij leefde een bedevaartsoord. Rondom de
zuil, die hij bewoond had, werd een basiliek gebouwd (Qalat
Sam'an, in Syrië).
Patronaten
Hij is patroon van de herders.
Afgebeeld
Hij wordt afgebeeld als haveloos gekleed kluizenaar; met pilaar waarop hij zit
of staat; met een gespleten baard (om hem te onderscheiden van Simeon Stylites
de Jongere).
Bronnen
[000; 000»sys; 014; 101/101a»S.-Stylites; 102»Stylite; 104»S.-Stlite;
105»S.-Stylites; 106; 109p:19(vig); 111p:383; 112; 122; 123p:115;
127»S.-Stylite; 140; 145nr26; 149/1p:26.28; 149/3p:573; 150p:9; 160p:68.232;
163p:232; 165p:47-48; 168p:126(5a); 193p:216; 197p:97; 200; 233p:639;
241p:171; 293p:10; 328p:82; 334p:45; 500; Dries van den Akker s.j./2010.22.21]
© A. van den Akker
s.j.
SOURCE : http://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/01/05/01-05-0459-simeon.php
Théodoret, évêque de Cyr . Vie de Saint Syméon l'Ancien, Stylite : http://fr.scribd.com/doc/3037396/Vie-de-Symeon-Stylite
Voir aussi : http://www.clio.fr/bibliotheque/Saint_Symeon__Quarante_ans_sur_une_colonne.asp
http://www.encyclopedie-universelle.com/saint-simeon-stylite2.html
