SIMEON
751
SIMILITUDE
iron chain. In praying he bent his body so that his forehead almost touched his feet. He took only one scanty meal a week and fasted throughout the season of Lent. He uttered jjrophecies and wrought an abun- dance of miracles. Simeon's fame became immense. I'ilgrims from distant lands, as Spain, Gaul, and even Britain, flocked to see him. Little figures of him were, during his own lifetime, set up in the workshops of Rome as charms against evil. He corresponded with bishops and emperors, and influenced the policy both of Church and State. By his life and his exhortations he converted multitudes of Saracens and other nomads of tlie dc'^ert. Some time after he had adopted his pe- culiar manner of life, some neighboring monks sent to ask why he was not content with such fashions of ho- liness as had sufficed for the saints of earlier daj's. The messenger was charged to bid him leave his pil- lar, and, in case of a refusal, to pull him down by force. But Simeon, on hearing the order, put forth one of his feet as if to descend ; and the messenger, as he had been instructed, acknt)wledged this obedience as a proof that the Stylite's mode of life was approved by God, and desired liira to continue in it. At length the dev- il appeared to Simeon in the form of the Saviour and invited him to ascend to heaven in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Simeon put out his foot to enter the chari- ot, when the tempter vanished, and, in punishment of his presumption, left him with an ulcer in his thigh, which, for tlie remaining year of his life, obliged him to support himself on one leg. He died Sept. 1, 460. His body was removed with great ceremony to Anti- och, the inhabitants of which had requested that it might be given to them as a defence for their city in- stead of the walls which the}' had lost. The Latins celebrate Simeon's festival on .Jan. 5. There exists from him a Letter addressed to Theodosius the Younger to induce him to return to the Jews their synagogues; it is inserted in the Bihlioth. Ortenfalis of Assemani. There is also found in vol. vii of the Bibl. Max. Pa- trum a homily, De. Morte Assidue Corjitandd, which is variously attributed to St. Simeon, to St. Macarius of Egypt, to St. Ephrem, and to Theophetus of Alexandria. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biofj. Generale, s. v. See Stylites.
A disciple of Simeon by the name of Daniel succeed- ed to his reputation for sanctity and to his mode of life, which he maintained for thirty-three years in the still more trying climate of the shore of the Bosphorus, about four miles from Constantinople. The marvels of Daniel's career are still more startling. Sometimes he was almost blown by the storms from the top of his pillar. At times for days together he was covered with snow and ice. How he sustained life, what nourish- ment he took, was a mystery to his disciples. The emperor at length insisted on a covering being placed over the top of the pillar, and Daniel survived till the year 494. See Daniel the Stvlite.
See Theodoret, Hist. Ascetica, c. 26 ; Ceillier, Hist, des A uteurs Sacres, x v, 439 ; A eta Sanctorum,, Jan. ; Mura- tori. Acta 3furtyrunt Orient. (1700); Krebs, Be Stylitis (Lips. 175.3) ; Uhleraann, Simeo, der Fiirst Stylita (Leips. 1846). See Pillar Saints.
Simeon, archbishop of ThessalonTca in the 14th and I5th centuries, and author of a number of works which are still extant, was a pronounced advocate of monasticism, a patriot, and a determined opponent of the Latin Church, against which he directed his most notable work, Kara A'lp'tntoyv, etc. (Jassy, 1683, and abridged in K. Simon's Crifiqtte de la Biblioth. de M. Du-l'in, p. 403 sq.), and his De Divino Teniplo, etc. (see Leon Allatii De Sim. Scriptis Diatriba [Par. 1664], p. 185-192). Extracts are given in Jac. Goar, Kucholo- ffium, Gracorum (Par. 1647), and by Morinus, Gessncr, and Possevin (De Simeon. Scriptis, p. 193; comp. Bibl. Max. Pafrum, xxii, 768 sq.). A number of additional writings from his pen are mentioned in Allatius, among thera several hymns. He conducted a valiant defence of Thessalonica against the Turks, and died in A.D.
1430, about six months before the surrender of the city to Amurath II. See Allatii De Eccles. Occident, atque Orient. Pejpetua Consensione Libri Tres (Col. Agripp, 1648), lib. ii, c. 18, No. 13, p. 862 sq.; Gass, Mystik d. Nikoluus Cabasilas vom Leben in Christo (Greil'swald, 1849), p. 157 sq. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s. v.
Simeon, Charles, an English clergyman, was born at Reading, Sept. 24, 1759, and was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. He was presented to the living of Trinity Church, Cambridge, in 1783, which he held un- til his death, in 1836. As a preacher, Simeon was dis- tinguished for an impassioned evangelicanism in lan- guage, sentiment, and doctrine, that at first roused bit- ter opposition , but he eventually became the centre of evangelical influence. He may be regarded as the founder of the Low -Church party. His best-known work is the llorm Homileticce, or Discourses (skeleton) iq)on the Whole Scriptures (1819-20, 11 vols. 8vo; Ap- pendix, 1828, 6 vols. 8vo). The entire works of Sim- eon, including Claude's Essay on the Composition of a Sermon, were published in 21 ^-ols*. 8vo (Lond. 1840). Claude's Essay, with notes, etc., and 100 skeletons of Se7-mons, etc., were published in London in 1853 (12mo). For the copyright of his works he received X5000, of which Mr. Simeon appropriated £1000 to the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, £1000 to the London Clerical Education Society, £1000 to the Church Missionary Society, and £210 to the binding of twenty large-paper copies presented to dignitaries and libraries. This series is now published by Henry G. Bohn (London), who issued a new edition of Simeon's select works in 1854, 2 vols. 32mo. See Recollections of the Conversation Parties of the Rev. C. Simeon, etc. (1862, 8vo); London Reader, 1863, i, 87; 1864, ii, 295; Cams, Memoirs of Simeon (1847, 8vo; 2d ed. 1847, 8vo). See AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, s. v.; Darling, Cyclop, Biblio;/. s. v.