§ 37. ST. SYMEOX AND THE PILLAR SAINTS. ]93
raised in j)roportion as lie approached heaven and perfection. Here he could never lie nor sit, but only stand, or lean upon a post (probably a banister), or devoutly bow ; in which last posture he almost touched his feet with his head — so flexible had his back been made by fasting. A spectator once counted in one day no less than twelve hundred and forty-four such genuflexions of the saint before the Almighty, and then gave up counting. He wore a covering of the skins of beasts, and a chain about his neck. Even the holy sacrament he took upon his pillar. There St. Symeon stood many long and weary days, and weeks, and months, and years, exposed to the scorching sun, the drenching rain, the crackling frost, the howling storm, living a life of daily death and martyrdom, groaning under the load of sin, never attaining to the true comfort and peace of soul which is derived from a child-like trust in Christ's infinite merits, earnestly striving after a superhuman holiness, and looking to a glorious reward in heaven, and immortal fame on earth. Alfred Tennyson makes him graphically describe his experience in a monologue to God : *
' Although I be the basest of mankind, From scalp to sole one slough and crust of sin, Unfit for earth, unfit for heaven, scarce meet For troops of devils, mad with blasphemy, I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold Of saintdom, and to clamor, moan, and sob Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer : Have mercy, Lord, and take away my sin.
Oh take the meaning. Lord : I do not breathe. Not whisper, any murmur of complaint. Pain heaped ten hundredfold to this, were still Less burthen, by ten hundredfold, to bear. Than were those lead-like tons of sin, that crushed My spirit flat before Thee.
O Lord, Lord, Thou knowest I bore this better at the first, For I was strong and hale of body then ; And though my teeth, which now are dropt awa^, Would chatter with the cold, and all my beard Was tagged with icy fringes in the moon, I drowned the whoopings of the owl with sound
194 THIRD I'EKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Of pious hymns and psalms, and sometimes saw An angel stand and watch pie, as I sang. Now am I feeble grown : ray end draws nigh — I hope my end draws nigh : half deaf I am, So that I scarce can hear the people hum About the column's base ; and almost blind, And scarce can recognize the fields I know. And both my thighs are rotted with the dew, Yet cease I not to clamor and to cry, While m)' stiff spine can hold my weary head. Till all my limbs drop piecemeal from the stone . Have mercy, mercy ; take away my sin."
fet Sjnieon was not only concerned about his own salvation. People streamed from afar to witness this standing wonder of the age. He spoke to all classes M'ith the same friendliness, mildness, and love ; only women he never suffered to come within the wall which surrounded his pillar. From this original pulpit, as a mediator between heaven and earth, lie preached repentance twice a day to the astonished spectators, settled controversies, vindicated the orthodox faith, extorted laws even from an emperor, htaled the sick, wrought miracles, and converted thousands of heathen Ishmaelites, Iberians, Armenians, and Persians to Christianity, or at least to the Christian name. All this the celebrated Theodoret relates as an eyewitness during the lifetime of the saint. He terms liim the great wonder of the world,' and comj^ares him to a candle on a candlestick, and to the sun itself, which sheds its rays on every side. He asks the objector to this mode of life to consider that God often uses very striking means to arouse the negligent, as the history of the prophets shows ; ^ and concludes his narrative with the remark : "Should the saint live longer, he may do yet greater wonders, for he is a universal ornament and honor of religion."
He died in 459, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, of a longconcealed and loathsome ulcer on his leg ; and his body was brought in solemn procession to the metropolitan church of Antioch.
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* Tb fxfya SoCjuo t^j olKovixfvris. Hist. Relig. c. 26, at the beginning.
* Referring to Isa, xx. 2; Jer. i. 17; xxviii. 12; Hoa i. 2; iii. 1 ; ] 5.
O
1 ; Ezek. iv. 4;