Venerable Symeon the Stylite of the Wonderful Mountain (596)
The Venerable Symeon the Stylite of the Wonderful Mountain (+596) was born in Antioch in 521 into the family of the God-fearing Christians John and Martha. His birth and his entering the service of God were revealed beforehand to his mother, Saint Martha (commemorated 4 July), by an appearance of John the Baptist. The child was two years old when he was baptised.
When Symeon was six, his father died in an earthquake that struck Antioch. At that time the child was in church. Coming out of the church he lost his way, and a pious woman took him in. Saint John the Baptist again appeared to the blessed Martha and told her where her son was. After this Saint Martha settled with Saint Symeon in a suburb of Antioch, where the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the child several times and revealed his future to him.
At the age of six Symeon went out into the desert and spent some time in solitude; then an angel clothed in light brought him to a secluded monastery, whose superior, Abba John, was also living in seclusion on a pillar. He received the boy with love.
Time passed, and Saint Symeon asked John’s permission to go up onto a pillar. With the superior’s blessing the brethren of the monastery built a new pillar close by. Then Abba John tonsured the seven-year-old saint a monk and himself raised him onto the pillar. Strengthened by God, the young ascetic grew quickly in spirit and soon surpassed his experienced teacher. For his exceptional fear of God and fierce labours Saint Symeon received from God the gift of healing. Soon his name became known far and wide.
At eleven Symeon decided to go up onto a higher pillar. The bishops of Antioch and Seleucia came to him, ordained him deacon, and allowed him to go up onto a pillar of forty steps, where he laboured for eight years.
The Venerable Symeon fervently besought the Lord to grant him the grace of the Holy Spirit. The saint’s prayer was heard: the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a burning candle and filled the saint with divine wisdom. The venerable father tirelessly instructed those who sought counsel, and besides this he wrote letters on repentance, on monasticism, on the incarnation of Christ, and on the judgement to come.
After John’s death Saint Symeon laid down for himself this rule of life: from sunrise to the ninth hour he prayed; then until sunset he read books and wrote; he spent the night in prayer, and after a little rest began to pray again.
At God’s prompting the Venerable Symeon moved to the Wonderful Mountain, leaving an experienced monk as superior of the brotherhood in the monastery. When the saint went up the Wonderful Mountain, the Lord appeared to him standing on a crag of rock. Symeon began his labours on the spot of this appearance: first he stood on a stone, and then settled on a pillar built on that spot.
The Venerable Symeon was granted by the Lord the gift of foresight. He foretold the death of Ephraim, Archbishop of Antioch, and also the illness of Bishop Domnus, which he would receive from the Lord as punishment for his lack of mercy. The Venerable Symeon also foresaw an earthquake in Antioch and called the people of the city to repentance. Christians healed by the saint built a church on the Wonderful Mountain. Symeon founded a monastery there, where miracles took place through his prayer. In 560, at the age of thirty-nine, the ascetic was ordained priest by Dionysius, Bishop of Seleucia.
A spiritual son of Saint Symeon was the Venerable John of Zedazeni. It was with his blessing that the thirteen Syrian fathers (commemorated 7 May) came to Georgia to preach the law of Christ and to strengthen the Iberians, whose faith had been shaken.
At seventy-five the saint was told by the Lord that his departure from the body was near. He instructed his spiritual children for the last time and reposed in the Lord in 596, having spent sixty-eight years on the pillar.
