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Death reaches the living in fits of great urgency, in a dense and mysterious

transition to stasis for the one who has just died. Even in those cases where a stasis

conveyed by the living closely resembles death. When initially peeking into the fifth

century, we encounter few deaths more spectacular and eulogized than the death of

Simeon Stylites the Elder (c.390-469 C.E.), the end to a forty year slow-motion climb to

heaven atop an enclosure in the mountains of Syria. A maverick practitioner of sustained

martyrdom atop a column1. Robin Fox Lane has remarked that “…the image of the

solitary anchorite, dying in private, remained powerful in Christian writings…[yet] the

first stylites, high above the crowds, brought a new drama and publicity to the

occasion...”2In the first three parts of this essay, I would like to explore the principal

texts from the hagiographic sources detailing Simeon Stylite‟s life and death, and in the

final section delve into the role of one party conspicuous to these depictions- Arab

Christian competitors for the “venerable corpse”

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. Are these simply fabrications of a

distressed adherent, or a rich item of consideration among the other „twenty-four hour

coverage‟ that resulted at Simeon‟s death? Do the surface inconsistencies in recalling

this episode in each of the three vitae available to us suggest the tensions of

1 For a critical look at the history of stylitism see David T.M. Frankfurter, “Stylites

and Phallobates: Pillar Religions in Late Antique Syria, Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 44,

No. 2 (Jun., 1990), pp. 168-1982 Robin Lane Fox, “The Life of Daniel ”, in Portraits: Biograhpical Representation in the

Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire, ed. M.J. Edwards and Simon Swain

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), pg 1793 We find these only in the Life of Antonius



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Christological and ethnic divisions during a period renown for dramatic changes along

this part of the Eastern Roman Empire?4

Theodoret of Cyrrus‟ Religious History, also known as A History of the Monks of

Syria written midway into the fifth century5, documents a tradition of Syrian monastic

life stretching across two centuries, for which Simeon Stylites Life provides a rousing

dénouement . As the twenty-sixth chapter of thirty, this Vita connects a vibrant Syrian

Christian past- albeit one with distinctively solitary and severe tendencies- to a

superlative figure whom Theodoret could claim “I myself was an eye-witness…”6. Susan

Ashbrook Harvey, has noted that “[Theodoret] …treated it with marked difference to the

others in his collection: he is here at his most hagiographical.”7It is with measured

words that this Bishop of Cyrrhus addresses what he fears some readers will perceive as a

“…myth wholly devoid of truth”8; to instead supply current proof of miracles for “those

uninitiated in divine things”. In his analysis of this chapter from the Historia Religiosa,

Robert Doran detects that Theodoret “…does appear ambiguous on the subject of his

[Simeon‟s] standing on the pillar”9, particularly with regards to the manner and quality of

conversion Simeon‟s renown inspired. We shall return to the topic of evangelism among

the Arab denizens of the Syrian „desert‟, and Theodoret‟s efforts to proj ect orthodoxy

around this significant group of clients.

4 see Peter Brown, “The Rise and the Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity”,The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 61 (1971), pp. 80-1015 nearly all scholarship agrees on 444 C.E.6 Theodoret of Cyrrhus, History of the Monks of Syria 26.14, trans. and ed. R.M. Price

(Kalamzoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1985), pg 167.7 Susan Ashbrook Harvey, “The Sense of a Stylite: Perspectives on Simeon the Elder”,Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Dec ., 1988), pg, 3788 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria, 26.01, Price pg. 1609 The Lives of Simeon Stylites, With a new introduction by Robert Doran, ed. and

trans. Robert Doran (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992).



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Just as his theological works such as The Cure of Hellenic Maladies vindicate

Christianity in the aegis of Biblical exegesis, Theodoret unites Simeon‟s astonishing

austerities with marvels of the Old Testament. Isiah was tasked by God to “…walk

naked and without shoes…”, Ezekiel commanded to “…lie down on his right side for

forty days and one hundred and fifty on his left…”10, and so Simeon likewise obediently

carried out a divine dispensation intended by “extraordinary novelty to draw everyone by

its strangeness to the spectacle and make the proffered counsel persuasive to those who

come.”11 Derek Kruger has argued that Theodoret‟s hagiography takes on a strongly

devotional purpose

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, a view not entirely incompatible with Harvey‟s own analysis of theemphasis given to reconfiguring classical Hellenic philosophical concepts and heroes in a

new Christian guise.13

These literary traits fused with Theodoret‟s polished Greek suggest

an intended audience among the Hellenized urban elites and fellow ecclesiastic

authorities concerned of heretical or confused neo-pagan origins14

in this “pillar saint”.

In the introduction to his translation of the Lives of St. Simeon, Robert Doran emphasizes

the importance of “the voice of the narrator: it is a bishop conscious of his position as

10 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria, 26.12, Price pg. 16511 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria, 26.10, Price pg. 16612 Derek Kruger, “Writing as Devotion: Hagiographical Composition and the Cult of

the Saints in Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Cyril of Scythopolis, Church History , Vol. 66,

No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pg. 707 -“Social history continues to exclude theology and religious

composition from discussions of piety on the assumption that thought and action are separable.” 13 Harvey, “The Sense of a Stylite”, pg. 379 14 see again, Frankenfurter, pg. 171 “we can discern a number of

religious practices centered in Hierapolis, with their respective cultures.”, speaking

to alleged pagan origins of stylitism and a Greek ruin closely located to Simeon’s

own site at Telneshe.



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shepherd of God‟s flock”, wherein “monks are admirable examples of piety, but they

remain subordinate to the clergy”15.

While the Religious History is indispensible for the modern historian of Early

Christianity, clearly it was lacking for the earliest copyists of the text. Being written in

Simeon Stylites‟ own lifetime, there is no account of his saintly death. Most visible

among other “problematic” aspects of the surviving manuscripts is a short interpolation

appended to the end of the life, whose unknown author hoped to “…demonstrate by

[Simeon‟s] death, to those who did not believe it, that he was human.”16This must

certainly allude to an earlier episode where Theodoret describes the arrival of a “virtuous”

yet rational deacon to Simeon‟s pillar , who poses the question “…are you a man or a

bodiless being?” (after which he was invited to ascend the column and bear witness to

Simeon‟s ulcers and other quite physical infirmities)17

. However late this interpolation

was added, it follows later patterns of a death where the saint‟s corpse retains its standing

posture (“…it remained upright in the place of his contests, like an unbeaten athlete who

strives with no part of his limbs to touch the ground.”)18. This thrifty summary of

Simeon‟s death ponders that “even today healings of all kinds of diseases, miracles…just

as when he was alive…” occur not only “…where his remains lie buried…” but

particularly “at the monument to his valor and his continual combat…the great and

famous column of the righteous and praiseworthy Simeon”19. We know that after initial

interment at a church in Antioch some of Simeon‟s remains were transported to the

15 Doran, introduction to The Lives of Simeon Stylites, pg. 4116 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria 26.28, Price pg. 17217 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria 26.23, Price pg. 17018 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria 26.28, Price pg. 17219 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria 26.28, Price pg. 172



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capitol of Constantinople under the guidance of Daniel Stylites and patronage of the

Emperor Zeno20

. The sanctity of Simeon‟s unique place of residence will be recognized

by subsequent generations of imitators for whom a prior occupant‟s column represented a

priceless sacred inheritance, and very shortly following his death it formed the site of

lasting monumental architecture still renown to modern times at the site of the Qalat

Siman.21

Possessing the foresight that “…others will pr obably write much more than

this…and if he lives on, no doubt they will add greater miracles”22, Theodoret

acknowledged the fluid boundaries of the hagiographic genre. So it comes as no surprise

that while Theodoret‟s Life existed as a useful template to expand upon, a great deal of

the accreted material in both the Syriac Life and Antonius’ Life will focus on Simeon‟s

death and burial. Doran points out that the extremely broad lines of narrative similarity

between the Vitae written in response to Theodoret‟s Life only converge on four

episodes- one of which being his funeral procession to Antioch.23

The Syriac Life traces

a much more detailed narrative of Simeon from his childhood, conversion, early

experiences as a novice monk, his virtuosic career as “God‟s Athlete”, and most

importantly for our purposes, a dramatic depiction of his death scene. What we might

first ask are the possible origins of its author(s), and the audience for whom they intended

a competing account. How does this portrayal of death befit one for whom fanatic, even

20 Robin Lane Fox, “The Life of Daniel,” in Portraits: Biographical Representation inthe Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire, ed. M.J. Edwards and Simon Swain,

(Oxford: Claredon Press, 1997), pg. 22

21 Harvey, “The Sense of a Stylite”, pg. 377 22 Theodoret, History of the Monks of Syria 26.28, Price pg. 17223 Doran, introduction to The Lives of Simeon Stylites, pg. 55



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near suicidal denial of the body was the portal to salvation and inspiration to a

community of followers?

Scholarship has placed the first appearance of the Syrian Life somewhat close

both chronologically and geographically to the construction of the Qalcat Siman, (the

magnificent shrine centered on Simeon‟s pillar at Telshne) in approximately 47324

. It

would seem highly likely that the community engaged in building this memorial required

a fittingly grandiose account to attract pilgrimage and perhaps convince the imperial

patronage of Constantinople of continued blessings associated with the construction.

There is also a valuable non-hagiographic appendage in the Letter of Cosmas of Panir ,

apparently a written contract between a nearby village to whom Simeon offered spiritual,

economic, and political leadership. The conclusion names a Simeon bar Apollo and Bar-

hatar who “…undertook to compose this book…by the toil of their hands and sweat o f

their brows to be a remembrance for their departed, to sustain them in their way of life,

for the redemption of their souls…”25, sealed by a date reckoned to the Antiochene

calendar. The Letter appears at the end of some extant versions of the manuscript, and

describes “…a firm pillar which arose in our generation...” manned by one who

“…petitioned his God by the pain of his limbs and rejoiced his maker by ascetic

practices…”26; clearly Theodoret was not alone in the view that “…like Abraham,

humble and holy like Moses…like Job in his trials…Mar Simeon who resembled in name

in deed Simon Cephas, the foundation of the church of Christ”27. Converts and

24 Fox, pg. 182 constructs an impressively detailed timeline for placing the events

surrounding both the Syriac Life and Antonius’ Life25 Syriac Life 135, Doran pg. 19726 Syriac Life 130, Doran pg. 19527 Syriac Life 130, Doran pg. 195



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benefactors of Simeon‟s jurisdiction such as the community of Panir would have held

few objections to the Syrian Life‟s prolitarean tone, quite likely forming a reservoir of

folklore or previous/alternate non-surviving written accounts from which those “who

undertook to compose this book” could utilize. Beyond the hope “that God may grant

them forgiveness of their sins forever”, the authors of the Syriac Life claim a stake for

Simeon‟s monastic community as the caretakers of his legacy, with no shortage of

instructions for future stylites.

To summarize briefly, the final sixteen chapters (of an ebullient one hundred

thirty) are devoted to describing one for whom “his Lord did not devise a simple exit”28,

an account that reflected one who would be “glorified…his heroic deeds both in life and

death more than all the people of his day and age”29. Consistent with displaying his

foreknowledge of fellow monks‟ deaths, the Syriac Life contemplates a Simeon blessed

to know the hour of his own death, granted to him only seven years after ascending his

station when “…two men appeared…dressed in glorious light…” to inform him that

“…when this number forty is filled, he has reached his end and he will be taken

away…”30 Inaugurated by “…such a sign as has not been seen in these times” prepared

by steadfastness of forty years on his aerial station, Simeon recognizes “…that sign of

anger in the city and region of Antioch...” 31which ushers forth a fifty-one day period of

foreboding where “…no one did absolutely any work at all, but everyone was

28 Syriac Life 114, Doran pg. 18329 Syriac Life 114, Doran pg. 18330 Syriac Life 114, Doran, pg. 18331 Syriac Life 114, Doran pg. 184; Fox has interpreted this “anger of Antioch” to refer

to an earthquake recorded in the sources during 458 C.E.



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numbed…”32while an entire population, not just his sacred community of followers

awaited a commemoration from the saint. One can recognize shades of the dread

preceding and following Christ‟s own death. With a final admonition to keep a three-day

vigil before returning in peace to work, the hagiographers describe a thirty-day interval

before a fever strikes and the holy man faces the throes of death with the constant

companionship of his closest disciples. Besides enforcing the ferocious stamina of this

combatant, one who is aware of the extraordinary length of the contest, this immediate

prelude to Simeon‟s death reiterates the profound ties of the holy man and his proximity

yet remoteness to the great city of Antioch. Is it possible that sponsorship from that

urban and economic crossroads, connected yet apart from the Syrian “desert” of the

hilltop complex would be of deep importance to the monastic community who preserved

Simeon‟s holy column? This factors in with imperial forces leveraged to commit

Simeon‟s remains as a spiritual rampart for a “city without walls”.

There is a conspicuous metaphorical language in the Syriac Life that combines

with the familiar descriptions of stout hearted warrior of Christ and winning athlete found

in Theodoret; everywhere we encounter a “master - builder”, a “hard working

husbandman”, “skillful pilot”, “watchful sailor”, and “practiced scribe”33. These

spiritual trades beckon to a broad peasant identity, evoking images very similar to the

New Testament appellations used to describe Jesus. It may be stretching too far to

recognize a direct appeal less to elite provincial notables, than the average Syrian worker.

However, in earlier episodes of the Syrian Life Simeon had been linked as a protector to

32 Syriac Life 115, Doran pg. 18533 Syriac Life 117, Doran pg. 187 provides a typical example, though these phrases

are salted throughout the text.



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those faring the seas34

, paradoxically able to stand both on his column and save the

doomed passengers of a vessel caught in a whirlwind, appearing on the waves and

guiding the ship safely to harbor. This fundamental Levantine imagery of “tempests of

sins” and “storms of evil”, invites a stark contrast from the scorching yet aromatic heat of

the desert.

I have mentioned the divine status conferred on the site of Simeon‟s vigil by the

unknown annotators of the Religious History. The authors of the Syriac Life describe

that just prior to his death, Simeon was favored with “…a pledge of his achievement…”:

A cool, refreshing, and very fragrant wind blew as though a heavenly dew were falling on the saint

were sending forth a fragrant scent from him such as has not been spoken of in the world. There was not

just one smell exuding from it, but wave upon wave kept coming. There were multiple scents, each

different from the other. To those billowing fragrances none of the sweet spices or excellent and

pleasurable herbs of this world can be compared, for they were dispensed by the providence of God. Nor

did they exude their perfume in the every place, not even the whole length of the ladder but from the

middle up. Wave upon wave went out into all the enclosure35.

As Robert Doran puts it- “Simeon the Stylite rising heavenward like incense was not a

victim of ascetic zeal: he was a living icon of the transfigured Lord.”36From this point

forward the Syriac Life develops a third- person telling of Simeon‟s final three days

focusing on the devotion of his followers, a theme that Antonius’ Life will later re-

interpret while treading a roughly similar sequence of events.

An important yet unnamed witness to these proceedings was “…one who loved him

and was with him constantly day and night…” who “…never left his side at all especially

in these days when he was dying.”37 This most trusted companion is allowed to perceive

the blessed fragrance, though Simeon commands him to “Speak to no one about this

34 see Syrian Life 72, Doran pp. 152-15335 Syrian Life 116, Doran pp. 185-18636 Doran, introduction to The Lives of Simeon Stylites, pg. 5437 Syriac Life 116, Doran pg. 186



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fragrance for the moment”38. Falling weaker and weaker from his initial fever and pain,

three days later Simeon atop his column finds “…all his disciples [were] standing around

him…”, and he “…set two over their colleagues and entrusted all of them to our Lord”39.

This phrase is somewhat ambivalent since “set above” could indicate a type of

ordainment, or simply Simeon imploring two highly established members to share the

limited real estate atop his thirty-six cubit perch. Remarkably, these two beloved

disciples are not named; whether in humility or to avoid jealous feelings in the monastery

we are not made aware; it must be assumed that the “one who loved him” is also one of

these two individuals, but that also is not entirely clear. Curiously, we are told for a

second time that “He [Simeon] also set them over their companions.” Was it a symbolic

act, a transfer of authority? It would be very difficult indeed to adduce a direct

relationship between the authors of this biography and these unnamed disciples, but it

resonates as Simeon‟s final living act.

This dramatic and tender scene portrays an intimate and serene warmth between

Simeon and his followers as he at last “…bent and places his head upon the shoulder of

that first disciple…and he yielded his spirit to his Lord.”40As we shall later see, this

contrasts with more solitary and silent images of Simeon‟s final hours, which is why we

are left with the puzzling question of what is unsatisfactory with a pre-revealed end as the

“gentle father” to his loving flock. For the authors of the Syriac Life, Simeon represented

no less than a new Moses. Despite the claims that Simeon had been “…strenuously

valiant in the orthodox faith…” whereby “…the horn of the holy church was exalted

38 Syriac Life 116, Doran pg. 18639 Syriac Life 117, Doran pp. 186-18740 Syriac Life 117, Doran pg. 187



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[and] …all heresies were disgraced”, did this somehow fall short of expectations for the

death of a being for whom the body was an object of enmity and disassociation?

The formidable competition to host Simeon‟s burial, set among rippling praises of

a “wise pilot and helmsman” who had taken the “ship of the body” to “a haven of

gladness carrying profitable cargo” forms the coda to the Syriac Life. For fear that

“…the villages gather and come snatch him away and there might be strife and murder”,

the disciples of Simeon place him in a coffin atop the column where the holy corpse will

remain for another four days. Very subtle but instructive details differ in this account

with Antonius‟ Greek Life. For the precautionary measures to protect the holy corpse

take on a much lighter edge in the Syriac Life. The arrival of Arbadur, general of

Antioch with his “numberless host of soldiers” is less a show of force to claim the holy

man‟s remains among a variety of rivals than a imperial retinue making manifest the

“glory meted out [by God] to one who glorified Him with good works and righteous

deeds”. Priests and high-priests and children of the holy church carry the body through

“the crowd no-one could number or estimate” en route to a five day journey to Antioch,

placing Simeon‟s body in a church built by no less a champion of Christianity than the

Emperor Constantine. Just the fact of his interment in a church where “neither one of the

prophets, nor one of the apostles, nor one of the martyrs [had been laid]”41, to the

chanting of the arch-bishop, seems to represent for the authors a further degree of glory

which would beckon the faithful to Simeon‟s splendid memorial, a location still removed

but important to both urban and rural populations of committed „orthodox‟ belief; the

nature of this hagiographic desire to appeal to a colorless sectarian identity amidst the

41 Syriac Life 126, Doran 193



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wider Christological controversies of the fifth century will linger in our comparisons of

Simeon‟s burial.

We thus arrive at The Life and Daily Mode of Living of the Blessed Simeon the

Stylite by one „Antonius‟. Though some commentators have seen “divergent”42facets in

this third account with the Syrian Life, many details (particularly those of Simeon‟s death

scene) could strike the reader as creative re-formulations of the imagery contained in

earlier versions. It might even be argued vice-versa.43

Much shorter than the Syriac Life,

the approach is both more penitential and less concerned with visions of a new Moses. As

Susan Ashbrook Harvey has pointed out: “What is most apparent in this text is the heavy

burden of sin, and the need to atone for that burden through severe, mortifying

penance.”44 Antonius’ Life presents tableaux of Simeon‟s death and burial that take a

form quite similar to the SL, which structurally forms the final third of the narrative.

Antonius is a humble narrator, a “watchman” and a “sinner”, and his role in witnessing

Simeon‟s death is a more subdued affair-no signs over Antioch among a terrified

populace figure in the days preceding Simeon‟s passing; however Antonius does witness

“…a man in a frightening raiment which I cannot describe...as big as two men…”45come

to visit Simeon eleven portentous days before his death. Antonius vaguely discerns a

meal shared and singing between this angelic figure and the holy man.

42 Harvey, “The Sense of a Stylite”, pg. 388 43 Fox, pg. 183 –Fox believes “Anthony’s touchs of realism perhaps protest too

much; is the ‘sinner least of all’ a liar and has he chosen his name to suggest the‘beloved Anthony’ of Syriac tradition?” 44 Harvey, “The Sense of a Stylite”, pg. 387 45 Antonius, Vit Sym Styl 30, Doran pg. 99



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In this rendering the drama is internalized, for like the beloved disciple of the

Syriac Life, „Antonius‟ stands as a privileged witness of Simeon‟s victory over sin.

Interestingly, the period of three days also plays a prominent role, but instead of visibly

surrendering his spirit on a Wednesday after taking a turn for the worse, he is only

discovered to be dead- on a Sunday. „Antonius‟ is not bidden atop the column by an

ailing Simeon, but climbs up in alarm that the great man has not lifted his head “…on the

Lord‟s Day...” in a customary show of blessing to his flock. Seeing that Simeon‟s face

“…shone like the sun…”, and hearing nothing, the narrator waits for an hour before

touching the old man‟s beard, finding “…his body was very soft…I knew he had died.”

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Reversing the bodily contact of the Syrian Life, „Antonius‟ does not place his hand on the

eyes of the departed, but places the hand of Simeon on his own eyes. Once again, a

wondrous odor is perceived- “…a scented perfume which, from its sweet smell, made

one‟s heart merry…”47-yet only throughout the deceased man‟s body and garments.

Simeon, and not his column, has become an offering of incense to the heavens, placed

upright atop his holder. Dramatic gestures (breast beating, lifted hands, ect..) absent

from Simeon himself, who apparently died several hours or even days earlier, his devoted

servant is witness to a awe-inspiring rumbling from on high: “…and behold! his body and

the pillar shook and I heard a voice saying „Amen! Amen! Amen!‟…” 48Certainly a sign

no less miraculous of the saint‟s victory, yet it again reassigns the image of the victorious

athlete, the vigilant sailor who had “…kept possession of his cargo and made his Lord

glad at his profit…” to one for whom sin required expiation to his final breath.

46 Antonius, Vit Sym Styl 28, Doran pg. 9847 Antonius, Vit Sym Styl 28, Doran pg. 9848 Antonious, Vit Sym Sty 28, Doran pg. 98



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One layer of intention demonstrated by St. Simeon‟s hagiographers can be

witnessed in their treatment of a miracle performed after Simeon‟s death, as his coffin

was being transported to Antioch. The Syriac Life describes a man living alone for many

years in the tombs outside a town named Maru, “…in whom dwelt an evil spirit…”49that

had rendered him incapable of speech, left in fearful isolation due to “...the sound of his

roaring…”50Seeing the body of Simeon pass by, “…as if heaven‟s mercies shone on him,

as if it were for this that he had been reserved…”51he runs and throws himself upon the

coffin, freeing himself from the demon and having his “reason returned”. Here, as in

the whole narrative of Simeon‟s translation to Antioch, the palpable sense of his glory in

death follows a heavenly ordained sense of the miraculous, tangible proof of his power to

heal even as a “venerable corpse”.

The Life of Antonius seems to present the same story; yet the emphasis again

returns to sin. We are told of a tomb a few miles outside not Maru, but a place called

Merope, where a “deaf and dumb” man is unable to leave the confines of the tombs and

survives only by the charity of passers-by. The cause of his suffering is not possession,

but an act of necrophilia he had committed with a woman who had been married in her

lifetime and unavailable to him until he went into the tombs following her burial. With

the passing by of the venerable corpse the man unable to speak or exit the confines of his

sepulchral prison yells out to Simeon‟s corpse and able to approach the carriage carrying

Simeon‟s coffin “…what had restrained him was immediately taken away and his m ind

49 Syriac Life 127, Doran pg. 19350 Syriac Life 127, Doran pg. 19351 Syriac Life 127, Doran pg. 193



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was restored…”52 The putative weight of sin is contrasted with Simeon‟s own willing

estrangement and life poised at the brink of physical death with a more wretched victim

of sin unwillingly confined to solitude and a type of involuntary ascetic existence. His

redemption has been from a kind of figurative death, as he cries out to Simeon‟s coffin

and the people witness to the miracle that “Today I have been saved by you, servant of

God, for I had perished in sin”.53Whatever tropes of the holy man‟s capacity to heal in

death encountered among this hagiographic literature, they attest to distinct

preoccupations with sites of burial, proximity, and penance; and they look ahead to future

veneration of a revered figure.

As we have thus far explored the fan of images surrounding Simeon‟s last actions

before death and strands of narrative influence between Theodoret, the Syriac Life and

Life of Antonius, let us turn to the less often discussed topic of Arab Christianity and the

unique inquiry to be placed before each Vita as a cipher for Simeon‟s apparently far -

reaching influence upon an Arab populace. Writing in the nineteen-fifties, Alexander

Vasiliev has argued that “…the hagiographic material casts clear light on the religious

conditions which made their appearance following the new trend of the central imperial

government. The Lives of the Syro-Palestinian Saints are of primary importance in this

respect, because in spite of their exaggeration and unavoidable miraculous element they

clearly reveal the existing fact that, in the pre-Islamic period, the Arabs formed the

principal part of the local population, and that most of them gradually became Chr istians.”

52 Antonius, Vit Sym Sty 31 , Doran pg. 9953 Antonius, Vit. Sym Sty 31, Doran pg. 99



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54 Just ten years later in the early 1970‟s Peter Brown may not have been willing to go

quite so far; when speaking of the anchorite Alexander the Sleepless he maintains that

townsmen barred his path “…for what they saw was the old curse of the Fertile Crescent

in a new form-a Beduinisation of the ascetic life.”55. Brown was at pains to distinguish

the rural character of the holy man‟s power in the late antique Roman Eastern Empire,

and does not always have so wide-reaching a vision of “Arabs”, who he equates

implicitly both with “The Beduin [who were]…among the first clients of many Syrian

and Palestinian holy man”56and as ambivalent symbols of the Other within early

Byzantine Rome, subjects of curiosity among the “…authors and their audience…”

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of

the Syriac Life. Islamic sources being in acknowledged scarcity dealing with this

period58

, we are often faced with a choice of just how literally to interpret designations

lik e “Saracens”, “Ishmaelites”, “Arab”, and most elliptically “barbarians” within our

Christian sources. In taking either a guarded view or literal approach, we can recognize

the Christological significance St. Simeon‟s hagiographers associated with this nomadic

population both when describing his relations with them in life, and also during his death

and burial.

One such intriguing item for consideration involves a contingent of Arabs described

in the Life of Antonius who appear in the aftermath of Simeon‟s death “…armed and on

54 Alexander A. Vasiliev, “Notes on Some Episodes concerning the Relations betweenthe Arabs and the Byzantine Empire from the Fourth the Sixth Century”, Dumbarton

Oaks Papers, Vol. 9/10 (1956), pp. 30655 Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity”, pg. 87 56 Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity”, pg. 83 57 Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity”, pg. 90 58 Vasilev, “Notes on Some Episodes..”, pg. 309



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camels, for they too wanted to seize the body…”59This same faction is not represented in

the Syriac Life, where the emphasis is placed exclusively on the pomp of both ecclesiastic

and military officials who claim Simeon‟s sacred corpse for the city of Antioch. Though

his body was “…surrounded by commanders, princes, city prefects, many soldiers and a

crowd no-one could number or estimate…”60there is not identification of competition

and the inherent threat of violence in contesting for the holy man‟s remains. Speaking

more generally on Syrian monastic life, J.S. Trimingham points out that “Arabs

participated in these movements, but they are only distinguished specifically when there

was some special reason to make mention of their origins”.

61

Rather, the most

conspicuous party outside Antioch to contest for Simeon‟s remains in the Syriac Life is

the Emperor Leo62

, who it must be assumed played some role in the construction of the

shrine at Telisne. Might local divisions from the urban Greek Christianity of Antioch

have been a concern for a monastic community depending on imperial patronage from

Constantinople? For some scholars this Arab involvement (or in the case of the Syrian

Life non-involvement) is taken at face-value as valuable evidence for pre-Islamic currents

of Christianity among Arab tribes63

, attested in accounts of conversion described in all

three of our surviving Lives of Simeon Stylites.

To begin to parse a notion of the “Arab” as a nomadic and semi-integrated denizen

of the Syrian hinterlands, many have turned to Theodoret‟s account of Simeon Stylite the

59 Antonius, Vit. Sim Sty. , Doran pg. 9860 Syriac Life 125 , Doran pg. 19261 Trimingham, pg. 14462 Syriac Life 128 , Doran pg. 194

63 Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, (Washington

D.C.:Dumbarton Oaks, 1989) pg. 110-112



18

Elder‟s efficacy in converting a pagan, polytheistic element64:

The Ismaelites, arriving in companies, two or three hundred at the same time, sometimes even a

thousand, disown with shouts their ancestral imposture; and smashing in front of this great luminary the

idols they had venerated and renouncing the orgies of Aphrodite-it was this demon whose worship they had

adopted originally-they receive the benefit of the divine mysteries, accepting laws from this sacred tongue

and bidding farewell to their ancestral customs, as the disown the eating of wild assess and camels.65

It is indeed difficult to assess the long-term success of such conversions, but the

importance of trading and benefits of Christian identity towards economic advantage has

been recognized.66

Probing into economic interaction among a vague borderland that

could encompass both “…semi-nomads and pastoral agriculturalists…” Trimingham has

argued that “…the borderland populations of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia were

largely Arab, ethnically speaking, even though they had changed over to the dominant

language, Aramaic.”67In Mesopotamia he distinguishes the way Byzantine authority

viewed a Syriac-speaking peasant farmer, and Arabs: “…The term Arab tended to

designate the intermediate category of pastoralist cultivators; they were semi-sedentary

and important for the economy of the settled areas”.68Whatever deeper religious

motivations inspired “Arab” conversion, we can associate the earlier mentioned emphasis

of the Syriac Life in expressing Simeon‟s ascetic endeavor using the idioms of merchants,

trading, and the rural economy.

Analysis of Theodoret‟s Life of Simeon has proven interesting in recognizing that

the hagiographer focuses almost exclusively on miraculous acts directed toward

64 see Jonathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near

East, 600-1800, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) pg. 4465 Theodoret, A History of the Monks of Syria, Price pp. 166-16766 Trimingham, pg. 12267 Trimingham, pg. 14568 Trimingham, pg. 146



19

“Arabs”.69We also know that Theodoret himself played an important role in the

controversies of fifth-century Christology. An ecclesiastic historiography70

abounds

regarding his excommunication as a „ Nestorian apologist‟ and later re-integration and

presence at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The decision by the authors of the Syriac

Life and Life of Antonius to incorporate and often embellish an aspect of Arab

participation buzzes with lingering discourse over the debates of Chalcedon, and what

some scholars have seen as the sharp division among many Eastern and Syrian Christians

and the West Roman “orthodoxy” of the time. 71 For Theodoret, Simeon‟s powers of

conversion and ability to assist “Arabs” conceals but also liberates his own anxieties

regarding nominal Arab Christians with loyalty to Monophysitism or sects out of step

with imperial control. His overall tone of panegyric describes Simeon‟s rural power

among these clients with only the slightest waver of confidence towards heresy resulting

after their conversion. He recounts a close-call in which first entreated by Simeon to

receive his ministrations, he is nearly rent apart at the hands of an overly-zealous crowd

of “barbarians”, dispersed only by Simeon‟s stern calls72. One seems to easily link an

episode that immediately follows, in which unruly “…behavior by these men…” in

seeking tribal arbitration only subsides after Simeon‟s “…threatening them from above

and calling them dogs…extinguished the dispute.” Here, for the second time as eye-

witness and intercessor to Simeon‟s interactions with “Ishmaelites”, he is unable to

69 Doran, introduction to The Lives of Simeon Stylites, pg. 4070 W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1972)71 see especially J.W. Trimingham “Christianity Among the North-Western Bedouins”

from Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, (New York: Longman,1979)

pp. 86-11672 History of the Monks of Syria 26.14, Smith pg. 167



20

contain the rabid neophyte faith of quarreling Arabs who “…would not have acted like

fools against one another if they had not believed that the blessing of the inspired man

had immense power”. Though written prior to Chalcedon, the Theodoret‟s Life of

Simeon is a window into the underlying tensions between ecclesiastic authorities and a

Syria that Peter Brown calls “…the Wild and Wooly West of ascetic heresy”.73

The earlier speculations of Robin Lane Fox toward the flashes of realism in the Life

of Antonius that tip the author‟s hand may very well serve our needs to support a view of

authentic Arab competition for the body of Simeon Stylites. The “watchman” Antonius

relays his knowledge of Simeon‟s death through discreet and direct channels to theauthorities at Antioch. Would it be so inconceivable that a member of Simeon‟s

enclosure attempt to communicate the news of his death first to a Bedoin faction within

comparable proximity? None of the sources can give indisputable proof, yet we see a

few interesting threads: in none of the hagiographies under consideration does Simeon

provide explicit instructions to his followers as to how or where his corpse must be

buried. This seeming indifference is at odds with the examples of Syrian asceticism

described earlier in History of the Monks of Syria, where obscurity of a burial site (in the

case of James of Cyrrhestica) or oaths sworn during heated competition among local

settlements (in the Life of Apcepsimas) prefigure deliberated plans. Perhaps in

submission to his immense fame, or possibly concealed by his pious biographers, Simeon

does not designate a burial strategy as he nears death.

Did semi-nomadic Arabs, distinct from the foederati74

within the Eastern Empire,

73 Brown, “Rise and Function of the Holy Man”, pg. 84 74 Shahid, pg. 164



21

simply appear at Simeon‟s “funeral”75with a traditional military decorum to honor a

cherished builder of tribal and economic unity? It seems doubtful, yet none of the vitae

speak of any actual skirmish or battle fought among Arabs and a “numberless host of

soliders”76 among the “..twenty-one prefects and many tribunes” steered by Abadur 77

and

the Antiochene episcopate. The fragmentary sources outside the immediate vicinity of

Syria in the late fifth century simply don‟t illuminate further into the symbolic or literal

function of “Ishmaelite Queens” and “Himyanite” sheiks and a nascent client-

catchecumen relationship with Simeon. A more nuanced understanding of Monophysite

sympathies assigned to Arab-Christians in the secondary literature

78

could yield further

traction to the “touch of realism” within the Life of Antonius. Like a fifth-century

Rashomon, our view of the events in Simeon‟s passing corroborate the facts that he

climbed the pillar and died atop it, projecting bright and colorful episodes of fragrant

triumph and several dark frames as to the true cast of extras in this peagentry. Simeon‟s

great power over death and power across the lines of Eastern Roman Empire and beyond

demanded a propriety in communicating his death. These were lines that an ecclesiastic

and imperial authority were attempting to splice uneasily at Chalcedon just eight years

before.

75 An undescribed event mentioned in the Syriac Life but omitted by Antonius’ Life,

one that also paints Arbadur, general of Antioch’s appearance at Telneshe to be one

of duty and piety, first and foremost to attend the funeral.76 Syriac Life 125, Doran pg. 19277 Syriac Life 125, Doran, pg. 19278 Trimingham, pg. 159: “…The f ifth-century controversies concerning the nature of

Christ mark, though they do not explain, the division of Syrian Christians into

opposing communions, of which the most defined were the Melkite (Chalcedonian),

the West Syrian (Monophysite), and the East Syrian (Nestorian). In consequence of

these divisions, those northern Arab Christians, nomadic and sedentary alike, who

fell within the spheres of Byzantium and Persia also became distinguished

ecclesiastically as Monophysites…”



22

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