bis own stature, and more like a sepulcbre tban a dwelling. He slept on tbe ground. He cut bis bail* only once a year, at Easter. The fame of bis sanctity gradually attracted bosts of admirers (once, ten tbousand), so tbat be bad to cbange bis residence several times, and retired to Sicily, tbeii to Dalmatia, and at last to tbe island of C}^rus, wbere be died in 371, in bis eigbtietb year. His legacy, a book of tbe Gospels and a rude mantle, be made to bis friend Hesycbius, wbo took bis corpse bome to Palestine, and deposited it in tbe cloister of Majumas. Tbe Cyprians consoled tbemselves over tbeir loss, with tbe tbougbt tbat tbey possessed tbe spirit of tbe saint. Jerome ascribes to bim all manner of visions and miraculous cures. § 37. St. Synxeoii and the Pillar Saints. Respecting St. Symeon, or Simeon Stylites, we have accounts from three contemporaries and eye witnesses, Axthoxt, Cosmas, and especially TnEODORET (Hist. Relig. c. 26). The latter composed his narrative sixteen years before the death the saint. EvAGRius : H. E. i. c. 13, The Acta Sanctorum and Butler, sub Jan. 5. Uhlemann: Symeon, der erste Siiulenheilige in Syrien, Leipz. 1846. (Comp, also the fine poem of A. TEirarsox : St. Symeon Stylites, a monologue in which S. relates his own experience,) It is unnecessary to recount tbe lives of otber sucb ancbo- rets ; since tbe same features, even to unimportant details, re- peat tbemselves in alb' But in tbe fiftb century a new and quite original patb * was broken by Symeon, tbe fatber of tbe Stylites or pillar saints, wbo spent long years, day and nigbt, summer and winter, rain and sunsbine, frost and beat, standing on bigb, unsbeltered pillars, in prayer and penances, and made tbe way to heaven for themselves so passing bard, tbat one knows not whether to wonder at tbeir unexampled self-denial, * A peculiar, romantic, but not fully historical interest attaches to the biography of the imprisoned and fortunately escaping monk Malchus, with his nominal wife, which is preserved to us by Jerome. ^ Original at least in the Christian church, Gieseler refers to a heathen prece- dent; the *aAAo3aT6r? in Syria, mentioned by Lucian, De Dea Syria, c, 28 and 29. 192 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. or to pity their ignorance of the gospel salvation. On this giddy height the anchoretic asceticism reached its completion. St. Symeon the Sttlite, originally a shepherd on the bor- ders of Syria and Cilicia, when a boy of thirteen years, was powerfully affected by the beatitudes, which he heard read in the church, and betook himself to a cloister. He lay several days, without eating or drinking, before the threshold, and begged to be admitted as the meanest servant of the house. He accustomed himself to eat only once a week, on Sunday. During Lent he even went through the whole forty days with- out any food ; a fact almost incredible even for