Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Old School Monasticism

I am currently reading The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard and came across this bazar account of the ascetic Simeon Stylites (AD 309-459).

"[He] built a column six feet high in the Syrian desert and lived on it for some time. But is soon grew ashamed of its small height and found one sixty feet high, three feet across, with a railing to prevent him from falling off in his sleep. 'On this perch Simeon lived uninterruptedly for thirty  years, exposed to rain and sun and cold. A ladder enabled disciples to take him food and remove his waste. He bound himself to the pillar by a rope; the rope became embedded in his flesh, which putrefied around it, and stank, and teemed with worms. Simeon picked up the worms that feel from his sores, and replaced them there saying to them, 'Eat what God has given you.'"

Weird. 

1 comment:

Darren Jennings said...

holy sh**.