Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/871

 SIMEON

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SIMEON

to 957 is based on a northern annalist who made large use of Asser; the next part, to 1119, follows Florence of Worcester; the remainder is an original composi- tion. Simeon's authorship of this work was vin- dicated by Rudd (in 1732) against Bale and Selden. He wrote some minor works including "Epistola ad Hugonem de archiepiscopis Eboraci," written about 1130, and some letters now lost.

Symeonis Dunelmensis opera omnia, ed. Arnold with valuable introduction in Rolls Series (2 vols., London, 1882-5) ; Symeonis Dunelmensis opera et collectanea, containing everything ever as- cribed to him except the Historia ecclesias Dunelmensis, ed. with introduction by Hinde in Surtees Soc, LI (Durham, 1868); Historical Works of Simeon of Durham, tr. with preface and notes by Stevenson (London, 1855); Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of British History (London, 1862-71); Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen Age (Paris, 1905), with list of earlier references, s. v. Simon.

Edwin Burton.

Simeon Stylites the Elder, Saint, was the first and probably the most famous of the long succession of stylitcp, or "pillar-hermits", who during more than six centuries acquired by their strange form of ascetic- ism 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 imita- tors, is based upon very reliable first-hand evidence, we should be disposed to relegate much of what his- tory 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 north- ern border of Syria. After beginning life as a shep- herd 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 appear- ance so extravagant, that his brethren judged him, perhaps not unwi.sely, 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 mor- tification of standing continually upright so long as his limbs would sustain him. In his later days he was able to stand t hus 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 hiiiisclf to remain a ])risner within a nar- row space l(>ss tlian twenty yai'ds in diameter. But crowds of ])ilgriiiis invaded tlic desert to seek him out, asking liis counsel or his prayers, and leaving him in- sufficient time for liisowii devotions. This at last de- termined him to ado))! a new way of life. Simeon had a pillar erected with a small ])latfrm at the top, and upon this he determined lo t;ike u)) his abode until death released him. At first the ])illar 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 po.ssess, that he instructed disciples, and that he also delivered addresses to those assembled be- neath. Around tlie tiny platform which surmounted the capital of the pillar there was probably something in the nature of a balustrade, but the whole was ex- posed 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 sum- mit 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 dis- pensed. Great personages, such as the Emperor Theodosius and the Empress Eudocia manifested the utmost reverence for the saint and listened to his courisels, while the Emperor Leo paid respectful at- tention 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 be- tween Antioch and 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 pro- tection to the unwalled city. The ruins of the vast edifice erected in his honour and known as Qal 'at Sim 'an (the mansion of Simeon) remain to the pres- ent 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. Sim- eon's column. This edifice, says H. C. Butler, "un- questionably influenced contemporary and later church building to a marked degree" (Architecture and other Arts, p. 184). It seems to have been a su- preme effort of a provincial school of architecture which had borrowed little from Constantinople.

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 De- lehaye in Revue des questions historiques, LVII (1895), 52- 103; Stokes in Diet. Christ. Biog., s. v., Simeon (12) Stylites; Holl in Philotesia P. Kleinert zum 70. Geburtstag (Leipzig, 1907). Upon the architecture of Qal 'at Sim 'An see Butler, Architecture and other Arts of Syria (New York, 1904), 184-93; DE VootJE, Syrie centrale, I (Paris, 1885), 141-54; Jdllien, Sinai et Syrie (Lille, 1893); 246-61; Leclercq in Cabrol, Diet, d'arch. chret. I, 2380-88.

Herbert Thurston.

Simeon Stylites the Younger, Saint, b. at Anti- och in 521, d. at the same place 24 May, 597. His father was a native of Edessa, his mother, named Martha was afterwards revered as a saint and a life of her, which incorporates a letter of her son written from his pillar to Thomas, the guardian of the true cross at Jerusalem, has been printed. Like his namesake, the first Stylites, Simeon seems to have been drawn very young to a life of austerity. He attached himself to a community of ascetics living within the mandra or enclosure of another pillar-hermit, named John, who acted as their spiritual director. Simeon while still only a boy had a pillar erected for himself close to that of John. It is Simeon himself who in the above-men- tioned letter to Thomas states that he was living upon a pillar when he lost his first teeth. He maintained this kind of life for 68 years. In the course of this period, however, he several times moved to a new pillar, and on the occasion of the first of these ex- changes the Patriarch of Antioch and the Bishop of Seleucia ordained him deacon during the short space of time he spent upon the ground. For eight years until John died, Simeon remained near his master's column, so near that they could easily converse. During this period his austerities were kept in some sort of check by the older hermit.

After John's death Simeon gave full rein to his as- cetical practices and Evagrius declares that he lived only upon the branches of a shrub that grew near Theopolis. Simeon the younger was ordained priest and was thus able to offer the Holy Sacrifice in mem- ory of his mother. On such occasions his disciples one after another climbed up the ladder to receive