“The beautiful fifth-century church of St Simeon represents the largest and most important surviving Christian monument of the early Byzantine period…
"St Simeon Stylites was born in 386AD, the son of a Cilician farmer… In 412 he joined the recently established monastic community of Deir Samaan… Increasingly drawn to a life of asceticism, he gained permission to withdraw from the main community and lead a life of solitude and meditation on the hill where the Church of St Simeon now stands. He soon gained a reputation for his extreme piety and began to attract large numbers of pilgrims from far and wide. Wishing to maintain his detachment in the face of so much attention, he had a 3m tall pillar constructed with a platform on top. From then onwards, until his death forty-two years later, he lived on top of a pillar, or in fact a series of pillars, each taller than the one before, culminating in one between 17-20m high… From his vantage point he preached to the pilgrims who continued to arrive in ever increasing numbers, gave advice on their problems and mediated disputes. According to one of his contemporaries, Bishop Theodoret of Cyrrhus, his fame was such that pilgrims came from as far away as France, England, Spain and Italy.
"[After his death] work began almost immediately on the Church of St Simeon, which was built around his famous pillar. [The pillar itself has now been] reduced to a worn and insubstantial lump of stone by the countless pilgrims who over the centuries have chipped away pieces to take home as holy relics."
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