The Life of St. Symeon the Stylite

Introduction

There are figures in human history who defy easy categorization — men and women whose lives seem to belong to a different order of reality altogether, whose choices and endurances strike the modern reader as simultaneously incomprehensible and deeply compelling. Symeon the Stylite is one such figure. Born in the late fourth century in the borderlands between what is now southern Turkey and northern Syria, he would go on to spend the last thirty-seven years of his life standing on top of a progressively heightened pillar in the Syrian desert, praying, fasting, preaching, and receiving pilgrims from across the known world. He became, in his own lifetime, arguably the most famous man on earth. Emperors wrote to him for advice. Merchants detoured hundreds of miles to receive his blessing. Theologians debated his methods. Crowds of thousands gathered at the base of his column to watch him pray, to hear him preach, and to be healed by his touch. And yet he sought none of this. He wanted only to be alone with God.

To understand why a book about this man matters — why it has mattered for sixteen centuries and why it continues to matter today — we need to set aside, at least temporarily, the instinct to judge his choices by the standards of contemporary comfort and psychological normalcy. The ancient world, and particularly the ancient Christian world of the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, operated according to a set of values and assumptions that were radically different from our own. Asceticism — the deliberate, systematic mortification of the body in service of the soul — was not considered pathological. It was considered heroic. It was the arena in which the most serious spiritual athletes competed, not against one another, but against the gravitational pull of their own desires, their own weaknesses, their own mortality. Symeon did not climb a pillar because he was disturbed. He climbed it because he was serious — more serious about the life of the spirit than perhaps any human being who has ever lived.

The text you are about to read is not a single, unified biography in the modern sense. It is a collection of accounts, the most important of which was written by Theodoret of Cyrrhus, a bishop and theologian who knew Symeon personally and who composed his account while the ascetic was still alive. This gives the primary text an extraordinary quality of immediacy and witness. Theodoret is not writing hagiography in the later, more formulaic sense — he is writing about a man he has seen with his own eyes, a man whose physical presence he has experienced, whose voice he has heard, whose influence he has watched ripple outward across the entire Mediterranean world and beyond. When he describes a miracle, he does so not as a literary convention but as a report of something he believes to have genuinely occurred, something attested by witnesses he trusts. The reader is therefore in the unusual position of engaging with a historical document that functions simultaneously as biography, theology, and personal testimony.

Theodoret of Cyrrhus was himself a remarkable figure. As bishop of a diocese in northern Syria in the fifth century, he occupied a position at the intersection of ecclesiastical politics, theological controversy, and pastoral responsibility. He was a prolific writer, a skilled administrator, and a man of genuine intellectual curiosity. His account of Symeon appears within his larger work known as the Historia Religiosa, or Religious History, a collection of biographies of Syrian holy men and women that stands as one of the most important documents of early Christian monasticism. But the account of Symeon is different from the others in that collection — longer, more detailed, more obviously charged with personal feeling. You sense in Theodoret's prose a man who is genuinely astonished by what he has witnessed, who feels the inadequacy of language to capture what he is trying to describe, and who writes with the urgency of someone who wants to make sure the world understands what it is seeing.

Alongside Theodoret's account, this volume includes other ancient sources that together build a remarkably three-dimensional portrait of the man and his world. There are Syriac texts that preserve traditions about Symeon's early life — his childhood as a shepherd boy in a small village, his first encounters with the monastic life, his years in various monasteries before he struck out on his own peculiar path. There are accounts of the miracles attributed to him, both during his lifetime and after his death. There is material about the community that grew up around the base of his pillar — a whole ecosystem of disciples, pilgrims, merchants, and supplicants that made the site of his column one of the most visited places in the late antique world. And there is the extraordinary story of what happened after he died, when his body became an object of intense competition between the city of Antioch and the communities of the Syrian countryside, each desperate to possess the remains of the man they regarded as the greatest holy figure of the age.

What emerges from all of these sources, taken together, is something richer and stranger and more humanly recognizable than any simple account of religious extremism could be. Symeon was not a one-dimensional figure. He was a man of fierce intellectual engagement who corresponded with emperors and theological councils on the great doctrinal controversies of his day. He was a man of extraordinary pastoral sensitivity who spent hours each day receiving visitors, hearing their problems, offering counsel, and interceding for their needs. He was a man of sharp social conscience who repeatedly intervened on behalf of the poor and the oppressed, using his enormous moral authority to challenge the powerful and protect the vulnerable. And he was, by all accounts, a man of remarkable personal warmth — someone whose physical presence, even atop a pillar thirty or forty feet in the air, communicated a quality of attention and compassion that made people feel genuinely seen and cared for.

None of this, of course, makes the physical reality of his life any less astonishing. He stood on that pillar for thirty-seven years. He endured the burning heat of Syrian summers and the cold of Syrian winters. He fasted to extremes that would have killed most people. He prayed through the night, prostrating himself so many times that observers lost count. He suffered from a chronic wound on his leg that never fully healed. He was attacked by insects, battered by wind, exhausted by the endless stream of human need that flowed to the base of his column. And through all of it, he maintained a quality of spiritual focus and human engagement that contemporaries found not merely impressive but genuinely transformative. People came to the base of that pillar broken and left healed — not just in the miraculous sense that the texts describe, but in the more ordinary sense that they had encountered someone whose certainty about the things that matter most had a way of reorganizing the priorities of everyone around him.

Chapter 1

The Heroic Deeds of Mar Simeon, the Chief of the Anchorites. To our brothers and sons and friends, children of the Holy Catholic Church: we make known to you in our writings the glorious deeds of this Man of God, who was a friend to Christ. He gave himself to service in the vineyard of our Lord from dawn until evening, all the days of his life. He turned the stubborn of heart to conviction, finished his struggle with praise, and his Lord took him to himself, to repay him the good reward of his labor in the land of eternal life — the blessed Mar Simeon. This glorious man came from the region of Nicopolis, and the name of his town was Sis.

He had Christian parents who gave him baptism when he was small. He had a brother whose name was Mar Shemshi, and the two of them alone remained to their parents out of the many children they had had. From his boyhood this blessed one loved to shepherd his parents' flocks, and he trained himself in toil, weariness, and exhaustion. As he grew up he developed this peculiar habit: with great and diligent care he would collect storax as he shepherded the flocks, then kindle a fire and burn it as incense, though he did not know quite why he offered it. For until then he had never heard the Scriptures, and he had not been formed in the fear of the Lord, having grown up from boyhood among the flocks.

He was radiant of face, fair of countenance, gentle and kind. In stature he was small, but strong and vigorous, swift in running, and he won favor with everyone. He denied food to himself while he fed others. When his parents departed from this world and he and his brother remained as heirs, he entered the church and heard the epistle being read. He asked those who stood near him, "These Scriptures — what are they, and what is in them?" They said to him, "These are the Scriptures of God, who dwells in heaven, and the word of God is in them." He felt great wonder in his heart, and on the following Sabbath he entered the church again and listened to those holy Scriptures with close attention.

From that day on he was seized by an extraordinary diligence. He gathered storax, and also bought what his fellow shepherds had gathered, and with reverence placed it before our Lord, saying, "Let the sweet odor rise up to God who is in heaven." After a few days, a visitor appeared to the Blessed One while he was with the sheep. This was the first vision he ever saw. He saw a man come and stand beside him whose appearance was like lightning, his garments shining as the sun and his face like rays of fire. He held a golden staff in his hand, and called to him and raised him up. When the Blessed One lifted his eyes and saw this wonderful sight, he trembled and was terrified, and fell face down upon the ground.

But the man gave him his hand and raised him up, saying, "Do not be afraid. Come after me without fear, for I have something to tell you and to show you. The Lord wills that through your hand his Name should be glorified. You shall be chief and director and leader to his people and to the sheep of his pasture, and through your hand the laws and commandments of the Holy Church shall be established. Many you shall turn from error to the knowledge of the truth. And if you serve acceptably, your name shall be great among the nations, even to the ends of the earth, and kings and judges shall obey you and your commands.

Only have patience and endurance, and let love be in you toward all people. If you truly observe these things, there shall be none among the first or the last who glorifies himself and becomes as great as you." Then he took him, and going up the mountain, placed him on its summit and showed him stones lying there. He said to him, "Take them and build!" The Blessed One said to him, "I do not know how to build, for I have never constructed any building." He said to him, "Stand by me and I will teach you." Then he brought a stone that was carved and very beautiful, put it in the hands of Mar Simeon, and said to him, "Place it firmly toward the east, and another toward the north, and another toward the south, then place one upon them, and the building will be complete." The Blessed One said to him, "My lord, what is this?" The man replied, "This is an altar to that God whom you worship, to whom you offer incense, and whose Scriptures you have heard."

Then he led him away from there and said, "Come after me," and brought him into a martyrium that was nearby, in which lay Mar Timothy, the disciple of the apostle Paul. As he was about to enter, he saw before the court of the temple a multitude of people that could by no means be counted. They were clothed in white and were like bridegrooms. From the north came others in the likeness of women clothed in purple, modest and adorned with great beauty. The Blessed One asked him, "My lord, who are these?" He answered and said, "These men and women whom you see are those who are destined to receive at your hands the Sign of the Messiah and be turned to the knowledge of the truth." Then he showed him also birds in the form of peacocks whose appearance was like flames of fire.

From their eyes went forth swift flashes like lightning. When they saw the Blessed One, they spread their wings, raised their heads, and uttered a cry loud and strong, so that the earth trembled from their voice. Then the man motioned quietly and gently with the staff in his hand and made them still. Again he led the Blessed One and brought him inside the temple. When they had reached the altar and stood to pray, there rose up from beneath the altar a man of pleasant bearing whose appearance was more beautiful than the sun. His beauty was beyond compare, his face was glad, and his countenance exceedingly cheerful. His hair was touched with white and grew in clusters.

And his garments were white, and his speech was soft and pleasant. He approached and greeted the blessed Mar Simeon three times with great love, and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simeon, if you prove equal to the calling and service to which you have been summoned." Then the two of them took hold of him and brought him to the altar, and he placed in the mouth of Mar Simeon something white as snow and round as a pearl, and Simeon said, "Such a taste and such sweetness cannot be found anywhere in the world." And his soul was satisfied and filled to overflowing. Then this man gave him the golden staff he was holding and said to him, "With this staff you are to shepherd the flock of Christ. Be strong and courageous." And when he had said these things, he became invisible and ascended.

After a time the Isaurians made a raid. They came and entered Sis, the native village of the Blessed One, which lay in the region of Nicopolis, and the saint happened to be there. The Isaurians raised their hands against him and seized him, but the Lord delivered him from their hands. They took many people captive, among them Thomas, the son of the Blessed One's brother — a man who later departed this world with a good name, having lived as an ascetic. Then the Blessed One rose and went after those who had been taken captive, and he found them encamped at Kastelen.

When the sentinels of the camp saw him, they seized him and led him with close watch to their chiefs, one of whom was named Bos and the other Altamdora. They said to him, "Why have you been so rash as to come here? Were you not afraid? Did your heart not tremble?" He answered them, "I have come for the release of Thomas, my brother's son, and of all these captives." When they heard this they were filled with anger and gave orders that his head should be struck off with the sword. One of them drew a dagger to strike him, and immediately his right hand cleaved fast to his shoulder.

When they saw this, fear fell upon them, and Bos their chief commanded that they should move on to another place. When the Blessed One saw that they would not receive his plea, he was moved to indignation and raised his hand against Bos, and immediately an unclean spirit took possession of Bos, and he was thrown into convulsions before the Blessed One, crying out, "Alas, you servant of Jesus Christ!" When the Isaurians witnessed this they were exceedingly frightened, and they came to the saint and said, "Tell us truly whether you are the servant of God." He said to them, "I am a Christian." Then the Isaurian chief, writhing in his misery, said to the Blessed One, "My sins rose up against me when you came to me. But I beg you, offer up a prayer on my behalf."

The Blessed One said, "If you truly ask me to pray for you, then deliver into my hands the captives you have taken, for their cry has gone up before God, and this trial He has sent upon you." The number of those captives, men and women, was four hundred. The Isaurian chief begged him to pray for him and promised to give all the captives into his hands. So the saint knelt down and prayed, and when he had finished his prayer he stretched out his right hand to the chief and said, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be healed." Immediately the unclean spirit departed from the man, he was restored, and he delivered all the captives into the hands of the Blessed One.

The Blessed One, as he led all the captives away, commanded them to tell no one what Christ had done through his hands for the deliverance of their lives, and he sent every one of them home to his own country in peace. While he was travelling through the mountains, he and Thomas, his brother's son and nephew, grew thirsty for water. The Blessed One lifted up his eyes and prayed, saying, "O Christ, who redeemed him from captivity, do not let him die of thirst." At once water burst forth in that dry place, and they drank. When their thirst was quenched and they looked for the spring again, it could not be found.

He led the young man and brought him to the village where his kinspeople lived. After these things the saint fasted for twenty-one days, neither eating nor drinking — he who from his youth had been nourished on meat and wine. After those days he desired to eat. Now there was in the village a certain fisherman, and that very night he had caught a good number of fish. He had a daughter whose name was Mary, and he left the fish with her and went away. When the Blessed One came and asked her to give him three pounds' worth and take the price for it, she refused with an oath, saying, "My father has brought nothing home today."

When he walked away from her, he stood with some soldiers who were keeping watch there because of the Isaurians, and with some of his townspeople. As they were standing and talking, something suddenly entered the girl and the fish and carried them both out into the street before all the people. The girl herself was leaping and gnashing her teeth and beating her head and crying out at the blessed Mar Simeon, while the fish too were leaping toward him. When the soldiers and the townspeople saw this sign they were afraid and tried to gather up the fish or calm the girl, who was behaving in such a shameful manner, but they could not.

Then her father came, and many of her family, and they begged the Blessed One for help. He went and took hold of her, and immediately she became quiet, and the fish also grew still. The saint said to her, "Because you lied, God has exposed you before everyone." These things our Lord did through the hands of the Blessed One, and He fully granted his request, because it was not out of gluttony that he had asked. For as he went out from there toward the flock and wandered along the mountain, he found a large fish, and having made the sign of the cross over it, he took it and returned to the village. When the soldiers who had been standing there saw it, they marvelled.

And our Lord performed a miracle here as well. For three days those soldiers and his fellow townsmen ate from it, and even then it was scarcely consumed, because the blessing of the Lord rested upon it. Two of the soldiers who were there loved the Blessed One ardently; their names were Selwana and Bar Shabbatha. Until he stood upon the pillar, they came and went in his presence and told many things before him and his disciples.

The Blessed One was constant in fasting and prayer, entering the church among the first and going out among the last, while for the greater part of the time he passed the nights in the church. From dawn until dark he was on his knees, and from dark until dawn he stood in prayer.

When he had been long in these exercises, those who were the same age as he would watch him to see whether he moved his feet or shifted from the spot where he stood. But no one could ever find that he had. He had a brother whose name was Mar Shemshi, who wished to divide the inheritance with him. Simeon said to him, "Do as you please, and take whatever you want without dispute." His brother for his part divided everything fairly. They had a paternal aunt who was extremely rich, and in those days she departed from this world and left everything she owned to the Blessed One.

Everything she left him he administered in the fear of God and gave to the poor and the needy. He provided especially for the monastery of the Blessed Mar Eusebona, because the son of his paternal uncle was there — a man set apart as a sign — who had been in the monastery thirty-five years. From the day he entered the door of the monastery he had never turned back to look at it. The Blessed One remembered that he had gone to that convent. After these things he remained four months, because he had seed sown and many affairs to attend to in other convents and among the poor. But throughout the entire fast of forty days, while he was living in the city, he tasted no food except the Eucharist, which he received when he was halfway through the fast.

He waited until the great feast day. And again, in the matter of the seed he had sown, our Lord performed a great miracle. He allowed the gleaners and the poor among the sheaves, and said to them, "Let everyone take as much as he can carry." And our Lord sent a blessing upon it, and it brought forth sixty-fold and a hundred-fold. He also brought out bread and cooked food for the reapers, and set it before the gleaners and the poor, and they ate and were satisfied. He served them with his own hands and mixed the wine for them. These things the Blessed One told not in pride, but in confession and praise of God for his providence toward him, repeating what the apostle said: that the gift of God is greater than can be told. After these things he loaded whatever he had onto camels and took it to the convent of Mar Eusebona, and from it distributed to the other convents.

When he had been in the convent of Mar Eusebona three days, it happened that Mar Mara, bishop of Gabola, a notable man, came there. The head of the convent brought him and presented him to Simeon so that he might receive his blessing. When he saw the Blessed One — how fair of face and comely of visage he was — he marveled and was astonished. His brother Mar Shemshi also came to Mar Mara to receive his blessing. When the bishop saw him he said to him, "See, my son, that your brother, who is younger than you, has chosen for himself that good part to which nothing is equal." When Mar Shemshi heard these words, he too determined to become a monk.

So the bishop blessed them both, and they two took the tonsure together. They became choice vessels fit for the service of their Lord and finished their days in good repute and in the service of righteousness. When Mar Mara the bishop went away, he said to the abbot and to those who stood by him, "Truly, this blessed one, if the brethren permit him, will become a chosen vessel acceptable to God, and his fame will go out from one end of the earth to the other. For I know what sign I have seen in him."

When Shemshi his brother had been with him about five months, he too went and distributed everything he owned to the poor and to the convents. Whatever was left over he loaded on beasts of burden and brought to the convent where he was a novice.

The Blessed Mar Simeon had no care for anything except how he might please his Lord. When he had been with the monks a long time, he separated from them and went and dug for himself a pit in a corner of the garden, deep enough to reach his breast, and he stood in it for two years through the oppressive heat of summer and the severe cold of winter. When the monks saw his hard toil, and found that none of them was able to rival him in his ascetic practices, they were filled with jealousy and said to the abbot, "If he is not made to conform to our way, he cannot live here." When the abbot saw the will of the monks, he entreated Simeon either to mingle with the brothers or to lessen his toil, but he did not comply.

Then the abbot said to them, "My sons, what should move us to hinder one who is constraining himself for our Lord's sake?" One of the brothers suspected that he stood in that place out of hypocrisy and wished to test him. So he came and stood above him, but in that very hour the justice of the Lord struck him down and he fell and became mute. The brothers who were nearby ran and carried him and laid him under a certain tree, and he vomited blood, and after three days he died.

Simeon's practice while he was with the brotherhood was this: from one Sunday to the next he allowed himself a portion of soaked lentils, and sometimes only once in two weeks, or even once in three, while he constrained himself with severe effort.

When they forced him to sit at the refectory table, he gave himself the appearance of eating, though in reality he ate nothing at all. The blessed morsel he received with the other brothers from the abbot he placed under the cover of his couch, and without his intending it the brothers found it. Again, when the brothers finished the night office and lay down to rest, he would hang a stone about his neck for the entire time his companions were sleeping. When it was time for them to rise, he untied the stone from his neck and stood with them for the service. But on one of those nights, when he had put the stone about his neck, he was tempted by Satan and sleep overcame him.

Suddenly he collapsed and fell headlong, and his head was wounded. He took some of the dust from the place where he had been standing, made the sign of the cross over it, and pressed it against the wound, which was immediately healed so that he suffered no injury whatsoever. Afterward he obtained a certain round piece of wood and stood upon it at night, so that if he happened to fall asleep the piece of wood would roll out from under him. When the brethren saw the severity of his discipline and wished to conduct themselves in the same way but found they could not, they devised a plan to bring a false accusation against him. They said to a certain simple-minded brother of the convent, "Take a dish and put into it morsels of bread and bits of cooked food, then go and show it to the abbot and say to him, 'This food I took from Simeon while he was eating it. This way of life he keeps up is nothing but pretense.'" When the abbot heard this, he called Simeon and accused him. But Simeon made no reply to the charge, because he longed that there might be fulfilled in him what our Lord said: "Blessed are you when men say all manner of evil against you for my sake, falsely." Then the abbot called him again and said, "Tell me truly whether this was said about you," and threatened him with excommunication. Only then did he reveal that it had been said about him falsely.

Now there was in that place a woodpile, and he went and hid himself in it. The brethren assumed he had certainly left the convent, but when one of the weekly servers went to fetch wood he found him standing huddled in a corner, and came and reported it to the abbot. The abbot and the brethren went and pleaded with him, and with great difficulty persuaded him to come with them and receive the Eucharist. Then one of the weekly servers heated a poker red-hot and said to him, "If you have faith in you and trust in your God, take hold of this poker." He immediately signed himself with the cross and took it with both hands. They expected that nothing would be left of his hands, but he held it without flinching, and no injury was done to him at all, for it was as though his hands had been plunged into cold water.

Although great indignation fell upon him from the brethren, he did not slacken his toil. After these things he took a hard rope and wound it around his body many times, until his flesh swelled out over the rope and covered it. When the abbot learned of this, he compelled him, though with great difficulty, to have it removed, and it came away filled with flesh and blood from his body. One time as he stood in prayer, Satan appeared to him in the likeness of a mist and struck him suddenly upon his eyes and took away his sight. After a long time the abbot begged him to allow a physician to be brought to examine him. But he was unwilling, and said to his brother, "Take me and lead me to the sepulchre where the blessed ones are laid. I will entreat them, and they will pray for me." After he had been there three days without sight, in the middle of the night flashes of light appeared to him, until the whole house was filled with brightness. In that same hour his eyes were restored as before, and he went to the brethren, and when they saw him they marveled at him.

Now near the convent there was a certain cave that was dark and terrible, so that even in the daytime whoever looked upon it was seized with fear and trembling at the sound of roaring that came from within. When the fast of forty days came, this blessed one went to that cave and there endured many a conflict with Satan. Serpents and vipers came against him, puffing and hissing. Satan also showed himself in the likeness of a leopard and of other fearsome beasts. Yet Simeon felt no fear at the sight of them and was not alarmed by their noise, but gave himself over to prayer, looking up to heaven and making the sign of the cross upon his breast, until suddenly Satan vanished like smoke before the wind. Then a great light shone in that cave, and a voice was heard by the saint which said, "Behold, the brethren are jealous of you and Satan harasses you, but be strong and of good courage, for the Lord will not let go of your hands. His grace keeps you and his right hand upholds you; he will make you a head over your brethren, and Satan shall be trampled under your feet."

When the fast was ended, the brethren searched for him everywhere and could not find him. When the abbot saw that he was not there, he said to them, "Take a lamp and go, enter and search for the blessed one in that cave for our Lord's sake. Perhaps he has gone in there; let him not die there, lest we be punished for sinning against him." So those brethren in whom the love of our Lord burned rose up, took lamps and candles, entered the cave, and searched diligently until they found him standing in a corner. They led him out and brought him back to the convent, and he received the Eucharist with all the brethren.

The brethren then assembled and said to the abbot, "Choose one of two things: either keep this brother and we will leave, or send him away and keep us." But the abbot, unwilling to drive away the hundred and twenty brethren of his convent, pacified them by saying, "If he cannot be persuaded to put himself on an equal footing with you, I will do as you wish." For a whole year he pleaded with Simeon, but Simeon did not relax his asceticism, and the brethren did not cease their complaints, and the fast of forty days was drawing near. At last the abbot summoned him kindly and said to him, "You know, my son, how much I love you, and in nothing have I distressed you, nor have I sought to send you away from here. But because of the brethren's importunity, and the rules laid down by former abbots, and since I am not able to depart from those rules, arise and go to whatever place our Lord appoints for you."

And if the Lord knows that in heart and truth you are seeking him, he himself will grant your petition, and you will be head over your brethren. This convent in which you have been a disciple will sustain and support you; and when I hear that the Lord has magnified you, I will rejoice over you." And so it came to pass. In his master's own lifetime he became very famous, and his renown spread throughout the world and reached the ears of kings, and his master heard of it and rejoiced. When the abbot finished his course, he committed the monastery into the hands of the Blessed One — for he too was a perfect man, who from boyhood to old age had lived by the monastic rule.

He had entered the convent at five years old, and he departed this world at seventy-nine, having lived in amazing and wonderful practices. Before Simeon arose and departed, he pressed four dinars into his hand and said to him, "These are for your clothing and sustenance until mankind comes to appreciate you." But the Holy One replied, "Far be it from Simeon your servant that he should hold a dinar in his hand. Instead of these coins, which cannot truly enrich me, give me prayers, which can." So the abbot prayed over him and blessed him, saying, "Go in peace, and may the Lord be with you always." And with that parting, Simeon went out from the convent.

When he had gone a short distance from the convent, he came upon a road that led to the north. As though directed by the Lord, he turned onto it and followed it until he entered the borders of Telneshe. There he turned aside from the road and stood in prayer beneath a tree until evening. And he prayed in these words: "O Lord God, who formed me in my mother's womb according to your will, and brought me forth into this light by your grace, and planted your fear in my mind as you willed, and separated me from my father's house in your mercy — I have taken up your cross and followed you according to your word, and you have guarded me from evil and from all its powers in the day of my adversity. Be now my good guide and protector, that I may come to whatever place your Glory is pleased to appoint." When he had finished his prayer, he arose and went on his way until he came to a certain mountain in the town of Telneshe, just before the beginning of the forty-day fast, in the year four hundred and fifty-eight by the reckoning of the city of Antioch.

There he sat down in a certain valley, turning over in his mind whether he should press on to the desert. Then he stood a long time in prayer and said: "O Holy Lord God, if it is your pleasure that I keep the forty-day fast in this town, then let the first convent at whose door I knock be answered by whoever comes out, who shall say to me simply, without any questioning, 'Enter, sir.'" When he had finished his prayer, our Lord directed him straight to the convent of Maris bar Barathon of Telneshe, who was the chief man of the town. At that time there happened to be in that convent only an old man, a layman, and a small boy of about seven years old.

When the holy master knocked, the boy immediately ran out with great eagerness and opened the door; and when he saw the Blessed One, he greeted him and said, "Enter, my master." The Blessed One said to him, "Go in, my son, and tell the abbot." The boy said, "No indeed, sir — you must come in; I will not let you go." And he clung to him and drew him inside. When he went and told the old man, he too came out quickly and received him with gladness, with warmth and love, as though he had known him a long time, for his steps had been directed by the Lord. There were no other brethren dwelling there — only the old man and the boy — and it was by the Lord's ordering that they happened to be there to receive him.

So he lodged with them in honor. In the morning the Saint said to the old man, "I was looking for a place where I might keep this fast in seclusion." The old man said to him, "The whole convent is before you. Wherever you wish, I will prepare a place for you." He sent and called his son, whose name was Maris, and together they fitted out a small upper room for him, which suited his mind well. It happened that Mar Bas the periodeutes, of blessed memory, came there at this time. He was a man set apart as a sign, a servant of the Messiah, rejoicing in virtue and free from envy, a native of Edessa in Mesopotamia and a son of senators.

When he had come and spoken with the Blessed Mar Simeon, in the love of our Lord, of those things that are fitting and proper to the fear of God — for he was a wise and holy man — he blessed him and closed the door upon him and locked it. He pressed upon the holy master to remain, and placed with him seven small loaves and a full cab of water. When forty days had passed, the Holy Mar Bas came with great eagerness, opened the door, and found those seven loaves untouched, the cab of water still full, and the Blessed One kneeling in prayer. Everyone who was present was astonished and marveled — all the more so because the moment they gave him the holy Eucharist he was strengthened, rose to his feet, and went out with them into the courtyard.

The next day he sought to go to the desert, but they persuaded him to stay, and they built him a cell on the mountain. There was also in Telneshe at that time a priest named Daniel, a devout Christian man, who gave a plot in his field where the cell was built. The following year, again at the beginning of the forty-day fast, this same master, the Blessed Bas, came and sealed the door of the cell. When the forty days were fulfilled, he brought with him the presbyters of that district and also, by design, some of his fellow periodeutes. They came and opened the door, and when they gave him the Eucharist, our Lord worked a great miracle there.

For a certain man from Telneshe, one of the rulers of the city, whose name was Marenes, brought with him a hin filled with ointment. As Mar Bas stood there with those who had come with him, and all the people, Marenes brought it to the saint to be blessed. And when the saint said, "May our Lord bless it," at that very moment it bubbled up and overflowed like a seething cauldron, until all that place was filled with the ointment. It poured forth so abundantly that all the people took from it. They brought many vessels and took from it, yet it was not diminished; full and overflowing, it went home with that man and remained in his house, full, for many years.

Healing and remedy in abundance came to everyone from that ointment. This was the first sign wrought through the hands of the blessed Mar Simeon in public, after he had gone out from the convent. For in secret as well, he had fought many battles with the Enemy of all good. Satan brought against him, as he stood in prayer, a black serpent that was very fierce. It puffed and hissed and threatened him, and coiled itself between his feet and wound itself about the holy man's leg many times, up to his knee, tightening like a rope, as though it would terrify him and drive him from prayer. But the saint was not terrified; he persevered in prayer.

When he had finished his prayer, he rose upright and moved to go away. When he was a little distance from the serpent, the messenger of the Lord struck it and split it from end to end. Again, ten days later, as he was standing in prayer by night, he saw the appearance of a dragon. It was fierce, enormous, and fearful, and it kept changing its shape. It hissed and whistled violently, lashing its tail upon the ground and making such a rattling din that the earth shook at the sound, and from it there went out what seemed like flames of fire. Smoke poured from its nostrils, and its eyes flashed like lightning.

Its length too was very great. But he, the heroic one, was not daunted. He lifted up his eyes and his hands toward his Lord, and turning toward the creature, blew upon it and said, "Our Lord Jesus Christ rebuke you." And immediately it vanished and was no more. The holy Mar Bas, the Periodeutes, after he came down from the presence of the blessed master, declared before all the people in the church, as though moved by prophetic inspiration and filled with wonder, that our Lord would work many signs through the hands of this blessed one — more than he had worked through the hand of any prophet or apostle. For the kings of the earth and the great ones would come to greet him and prostrate themselves before him, and would ask him to pray for them. And indeed all of this came to pass.

Now there was a certain man in the village of Yathlaha, about three miles from Telneshe, who was wealthy and the chief of his village. This man had a daughter who had been paralyzed from childhood and had not been able to move for about eighteen years. They brought her and placed her on the north side of the cell, and her father went in and told the blessed one about her and begged him to pray for her. The saint said to him, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, take some of this dust, go out, and apply it to her." There was no ointment there to give, nor could any consecrated earth be given, for he had been there only a year and two months.

But the moment that dust touched her in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, she sprang up and stood, completely well, and all who saw her gave praise to God. Then on her own feet she climbed the entire length of the mountain. Her father built a convent for her, and she lived in it all the days of her life. She was the first paralytic to be healed there, and this was the sign that was wrought in that place. Her father remained with the blessed one all the days of his life. After this, two paralyzed boys came to him, sons of two sisters from the vale of Antioch. One had been born paralyzed, and the Evil One had struck the other six months after his birth and paralyzed him.

A man from Telneshe happened to be passing by and saw them, and he told their family about the blessed one, for until then his fame had not spread far. When their family came and brought the boys, they carried them in and laid them down before him. When he looked at them he was deeply moved, for the boys were beautiful, and they had been in that pitiable condition for seven years. When he had finished his prayers, he called those who had brought them and said, "Anoint them with this dust in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And the moment they were anointed, the boys leaped up and stood and walked back and forth before the blessed one.

Both of them went away healed, rejoicing and praising our Lord. Then there came a certain soldier who had done a dreadful deed. While traveling along the road he had seen a young virgin, seized her by force, and violated her. Immediately an evil spirit struck him and threw him from his horse, and he withered up like dry wood. He could not speak, could not move, and recognized no one. They brought him and laid him before the saint for an entire day. When the saint had ended his prayer, he commanded that the man be smeared with some of the dust that lay before him, and that water be thrown upon him.

Then his reason returned, and he sat up and spoke. The saint said to him, "Do you promise that you will never again do such a wicked deed?" And he promised that he would never again do anything wicked or impious. Then the saint said to him, "Rise, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And immediately he sprang up, stood, and walked. He went away whole, rejoicing and praising God. After him there came a man tormented by an evil spirit, which would lie with him on his bed in the likeness of a woman, and he was greatly tortured and afflicted. When the saint saw him, he said to him, "Anoint yourself with that dust in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and make with it the sign of the cross three times in your house, and you will never see it again." He did as the saint told him, and never again did he see that impious thing, until the day of his death.

And in those same days, there came to him a certain man from Aleppo who brought his son with him bound in chains, because an evil spirit had suddenly come upon the boy. He would stone his own parents, his reason was completely gone, he wore no clothing at all, and he was continually chewing his tongue and biting his arms. When his father arrived, he entered and threw himself down before the Blessed One — for at this time Simeon still stood on the ground — and with tears and bitter groans he begged him for help. The Blessed One answered and said to the father, "Do not weep, but loose those bonds from him." When his father loosed him, the saint called the boy, and immediately the boy answered him with joy.

He said to him, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, take some of this dust that lies before you and anoint your whole body." And the boy took it in his hands and anointed his whole body. Then the saint gave the command, and they brought water; he blessed it, gave the boy some to drink, and threw some upon his face. At once his reason returned. He recognized his father, ran forward, and kissed the garments of the saint, and received his blessing. He lodged there that day, and in the morning went away with his father, healed, praising and blessing God, who had become his healer through the hands of the saint.

After these things, there was a certain deacon who lived about three miles from the cell. He had gone out to the harvest, taking with him a small boy. While the deacon was reaping and the boy was playing, a fierce black serpent came out, coiled itself around the boy's legs, and began to squeeze, while the boy howled and cried for help. When the deacon saw it, he said to the serpent, "By the prayers of Mar Simeon who stands in Telneshe, do not hurt him." At once it released the boy, coiled itself up, and lay still like a piece of string, doing him no harm at all. It remained like that for three days. All the people of the village came to see it, and they came and told the Blessed One.

He said to the deacon, "Go and say to it, 'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, go away and do not hurt anyone.'" After that the serpent was released and went away. Another time they brought to him a boy from the valley who had a stone in his bladder and was in great torment and distress. Much money had been spent on physicians, and no one had helped him at all. When he was brought to the saint, Simeon gave the command and they brought water. He said to the boy's father, "Put some of that dust into it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and give it to him to drink." And immediately when the boy drank of that water, our Lord granted him relief.

A round stone passed out of his bladder, and immediately his internal organs were completely eased. He went away well, rejoicing and praising God. Now an elder of Telneshe loved Mar Simeon greatly and was with him constantly. The saint's cell stood in this elder's field, and whatever Simeon wore as clothing the elder bought for him at his own expense. One time the elder came up with all his deacons to visit the Blessed One. One of those deacons, who was the steward of the church, said to the saint in a joking manner, "Open that little purse of yours and make a distribution to my master's household." But the saint said to him, "Did someone tell you that I have money, or did you perceive it yourself?" At once the deacon's reason was turned upside down; he became as weak as water and tore his own garments.

They carried him down, and he remained two days in dreadful agony, tormented, beating his head and gnashing his teeth; then he died. After these things, the saint formed the purpose of shutting himself away for three years, so that he should see no one and no one should see him. He made for himself a chain twenty cubits long, fastened it to his leg, and secured it to a rock. It happened that the holy man and lover of God, Mar Bas, came along with the elder of the village, and they pressed him with such earnest entreaties that he agreed to divide those three years in half. Then Mar Bas made the further arrangement of leaving with him a peck and a half of dry pulse — a peck to last a year.

There was also a large urn of water there, which held three cabs. When he had stopped up the door and was entirely alone, the Adversary suddenly appeared to him and made a great assault upon the Blessed One, beginning to war with him openly. He came upon him in the likeness of soldiers riding horses; they drew their swords, bent their bows, and spurred their horses forward in a charge against the Blessed One. But the holy saint did not cease from the service of his Lord. Then they mounted the wall of the cell and rolled stones down upon him, trying to drive him from the place where he stood.

One day Satan appeared to him in the likeness of a lustful, foaming, and savage camel that came and put its head upon his back. As it reached the Blessed One, there appeared before the saint one in the likeness of an old man, who took dust and threw it into the mouth of the camel, whereupon it instantly vanished and was gone, disappearing like smoke before the wind. Then the old man said to him, "Do not be afraid; be of good courage and be strong." Another time Satan came with his whole host, and they were carrying lighted torches. They appeared like flashes of fire rising up to heaven. Again they came and stood beside him, crying and clamoring for a long time, trying to hinder the Blessed One in his religious exercise.

But he was not afraid of them, nor was he terrified by their shrieking, and he kept himself occupied in the service of his Lord. Sometimes they appeared as though shattering rocks and stones, making sounds like thunder and like the noise of weeping, and as though men were fighting one another with spears and swords, while some cried out with mournful shrieks, "You have killed me!" Again Satan appeared to him in the likeness of a lion that came in through the door and opened its mouth, and from its mouth there poured what seemed to be flames of fire; it threatened and roared and lifted up its voice, and pawed the ground with its feet and sent the gravel flying up to the very heavens.

Then it rushed upon him violently. While its insane fury continued, after its manner, the Saint did not neglect his religious exercises. Then, again, it vanished like its fellows, and was not. That abominable one, the doer of evil deeds and lover of wickedness, appeared to the holy one at midday as he stood praying, in the likeness of a beautiful woman clothed in garments of gold and adorned with beautiful things, who laughed merrily and came toward him. When the Saint saw her, he crossed himself, and turning, breathed on her in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Immediately she became like a beast whose hands and feet had been cut off, and wallowing in howling retreat as though many were pursuing her, she reached a corner of the cell and vanished like smoke.

After the saint had been imprisoned five months, and the enemy had warred with him in all forms and appeared to him in every variety of shape, yet the Blessed One had not ceased from the service of his Lord nor turned from his heavenly labor, Satan went and collected snakes and scorpions and mice and field-mice and all abominable reptiles, and brought them and filled with them the tank of water that was there, until it was putrid and the odor spread outside the cell. When the Blessed One saw that the place stank and was troubled by the stench, he brought earth and stones and filled the tank. Many days passed, and when the heat was strong in the month of Tammuz, there was not a drop of water for him to drink, and the day on which the door was to be opened was still thirteen months away.

Being exceedingly thirsty, he dug in the ground where he stood, and knelt and put his mouth to it, breathing in the coolness of the clay. Then he stretched his hands toward heaven and prayed, and said in his prayer, "O Mighty Lord, possessor of heaven and earth, deal with your servant according as your Divinity knows best." And he continued in prayer to God a long time. When he arose from his prayer and crossed himself, he turned to his right hand and saw a brook filled with water, clear and cool and sweet. When he saw it, he thought it was an illusion, and he came and prayed beside it for no little time.

But the waters did not move from their place, and so he knew that this thing was from God; and it remained for his use until the day the cell was opened. His clothing was patched with straw from the wild grain of the second year, which grew before him in the enclosure, and upon it he coiled a hard rope. With this clothing he was clothed for seven years; then he made himself a cloak of goat leather. Thus evil was put to confusion with all its retinue, and the Messiah was glorified by his faithful servant. May our Lord be adored for his lovingkindness! He did not leave his athlete in this contest, but speedily sent him consolation and comfort.

For there appeared to him, after that commotion and clamor and strife, a beautiful man covered with a white stole, who came and stood in front of the window of the sacred treasury and folded his hands behind him. He bowed and raised himself up many times. When he had finished his prayer, he went to the eastern wall and, spreading out his hands toward heaven, prayed for a considerable time, then disappeared. From him, therefore, the Blessed One learned this custom of bowing and standing upright, for he knew and understood that this was the care of our Lord. Now again after this there appeared to him beautiful boys clothed in white and bearing lighted wax candles and golden crosses.

They stood by the wall just before the window of the sacred treasury and sang praises, saying, "Blessed is the Lord who chose the elect in a strong city." And many times was heard there the voice of worship and of praise and of adoration, so that many of the people of the village who were passing the night on the threshing floors and rising early to go to work heard the sound and also saw the vision. For no one had begun to lodge in the enclosure until Satan incited robbers and brought three of them against him. They came and descended from the wall at midnight, and one of them drew his sword and rushed violently at him.

The other two raised their iron-tipped spears against him. But as that first one ran forward and came near, suddenly our Lord struck him upon his face and dimmed his eyes, and he swayed like a reed. He was paralyzed and dropped down, his sword falling from his hands. Then, his mouth closed, he stood there in that place, unable to move in either direction. His companions likewise stood speechless, leaning upon their spears, with their mouths closed. At dawn they were still standing, and so they stood all day in extreme misery, bowed before him. When evening came the Blessed One spoke with them and said, "Where do you come from? And what do you seek?" Then two of them said to him in great agony, "We came as robbers and descended to kill you." The third could not open his mouth at all, but remained with it closed.

Then the Holy One cried out for them three times, and at once they were able to lift their feet from the ground. Then he said to them, "Go, and do not harm anyone again, lest you suffer something worse than this." Now after those days of his imprisonment, when the year and a half was fulfilled, the holy Mar Bas came, and a considerable crowd gathered. They opened the door and gave him the Eucharist. That very day our Lord showed lovingkindness and revealed a marvelous sign. They opened the vessel into which the lentils that the holy Mar Bas had left for him had been placed, and found it full, just as they had left it, and they marveled and were astonished.

Then the elders and deacons arose and gave a portion from it to all the people, from three o'clock until nine, and it was not exhausted. Then the widows of the city also came up and received their skirts full and went down, and still it remained just as it was. Mar Bas himself greatly marveled at this, and everyone else marveled too, for it was a marvelous thing. After these things he set up a stone for him to stand upon, which had four bases and was two cubits high. Mar Bas, however, excused himself from further visiting and returned to dwell in his convent, and our Lord gave prosperity into his hands, and he built an excellent monastery in which our Lord took pleasure.

After these things the saint's fame began to spread through the world, and people began to flock to him from everywhere. He stood upon that stone for five years, and his reputation spread to every corner of the earth, and people came to him from every place. After those five years during which he stood upon the stone, his brother Mar Shemshi fell asleep in good repute and in works of righteousness. Our Lord revealed this to him as well, and did not hide from him the news of his brother's departure. For three days before it happened, he called three elders who were chiefs of the city — Marenes, Demetrianus, and Maris — and said to them, "Before the door of this cell is opened, my brother Mar Shemshi will depart this life. Make a shrine and lay him in it, and take care that no one takes him from you."

For he had seen a vision: a certain tree loaded with abundant fruit, beautiful in appearance, its topmost branches adorned and leafy and full of fruit, its leaves pleasant and delightful to look upon. From this tree a certain branch was growing out. Then a man of fine appearance came, whose aspect was very wonderful, and with him four men carrying axes in their hands, and he said to them, "Cut this branch from the tree, for it greatly hinders it and keeps it from bearing more fruit." And behold, another man appeared and stood beside it, also adorned in his clothing and comely in his face, and this man said, "Let us find another companion for it." But the first man answered him, "A companion is not needed for it, for it is sufficient by itself both for those outside and for those inside." And when the branch had been taken from the tree, the man commanded the four men and said to them, "Now dig deep, and set the root of this tree upon the rock, and fill the earth back up all the way to its topmost branches, and make it very firm so that it cannot be shaken. For it will bear much fruit, and strong winds and waves and violent storms will strike it."