Venerable Symeon the Stylite

Symeon was born around 390 in the village of Sisan, the son of a shepherd family. As a boy of thirteen he heard the Beatitudes read in church and soon left home for a monastery. There his severity toward himself alarmed the brothers: according to his Life, he bound a rough palm-fibre rope tightly around his body until it cut into the flesh, and the abbot sent him away.

He settled on a hill near Antioch and, from about 420, lived on a pillar, which was raised over the years from six cubits to thirty-six. Pilgrims came from Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Italy and Britain; he taught them in the afternoons and settled their quarrels. He died on the pillar in 459, and his body was carried to Antioch. He is remembered as the first of the pillar saints.