Stylite Saints
AUGUSTINE CASIDAY
Asceticism in the form of ascending a column (in Greek, stylos) and remaining there for extended periods as a “column-dweller” or stylite is a distinctive feature of Eastern Christianity. This way of life was pioneered in 5th-century Syria by Simeon the Stylite (ca. 389–459). From the 430s Simeon built his column and gradually extended it to a height of some 16 meters in order to escape the crowds who gathered around him, and to pray. But he did not sever his connections with the faithful. On the contrary, pilgrims came from afar to marvel at Simeon, seeking support and even adjudication of legal and political matters, no less than spiritual guidance from him (Theodoret, Historia Religiosa 26.26; Syriac, Life of Simeon 56, 60, 77; Brown 1971: 90–1). At least one pilgrim to Simeon’s column actually followed his example: Daniel the Stylite (Life of Daniel 6, 21). In 460 Daniel (403–93) ascended his pillar near Constantinople, which allowed him to continue exercising influence albeit now within the imperial capital (Brown 1971: 92–3): “The Emperor Zeno is said to have taken his advice” (Life ofDaniel 55).
Images and pilgrim tokens of the great stylites circulated within their own lifetimes as far away as Rome and Gaul. This probably explains how Walfroy of Carignan (d. 596 or 600) found out about Simeon Stylites. Unique among western ascetics, Walfroy set up a column near Trier, but he was sharply rebuked by bishops who compared him unfavorably to Simeon and then demolished the column to make sure he would not ascend it again (Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks 8.15). Walfroy’s Byzantine contemporary, Simeon the Younger (521–96), was also precocious and more accepted. He took to a pillar when he was only seven. Some years later, he relocated to the Wondrous Mountain where a monastery formed nearby. Simeon left behind several writings, which may perhaps be compared to the case of the Chronicle of the wars between Byzantium and Persia which was purportedly written in 504 by Joshua the Stylite. These few men are the most eminent examples from a “golden age” of stylite asceticism.
From the Iconoclast controversies through the 9th century, the prominence of stylites began to wane. This is not to say that no stylites are found thereafter. We know of Luke the Stylite in the 10th century. Similarly, Lazarus of Mt. Galesios (ca. 972–1053) lived on a pillar near Ephesus where he was surrounded by three monasteries he had founded. And in the 12th century, Nikita the Stylite was a revered figure whose reputation spread from Pereyaslavl throughout the Slavic world. Reverence for stylites, however, was increasingly directed to historical figures of the past. So, for instance, in The Travels of Macarius 4.7.1, Paul of Aleppo reports on the Muscovites’ special devotion to Simeon the Stylite on the first day of the year and describes its rites in some detail for the mid-17th century. A stylite monk lived on the top of one of the large columns in Hadrian’s temple in Athens in the 19th century. Stylites became rare, then, but their memory has endured. Elevated between earth and sky, the stylites have for centuries directed the eyes – and sometimes the lives – of Orthodox Christians heavenward.
SEE ALSO: Asceticism; Iconoclasm; Monasticism
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Brown, P. (1971) “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Studies 61: 80–101.
Dawes, E. and Baynes, N. H. (1977) Three Byzantine Saints. Oxford: Mowbray.
Delehaye, H. (1923) Les Saints stylites. Brussels: Societe des bollandistes.
Doran, R. (1992) The Lives of Symeon Stylites, CS 112. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications. Schachner, L. A. (2009) “The Archaeology of the Stylite,” in D. Gwynn and S. Bangert (eds.) Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity. Late Antique Archaeology 5.1. Leiden: E. J. Brill.