Devout Pillar-Sitting Saints
Written Jul 31st, 2006 by Josh Rives | Email This
The record for pole-sitting, also known as sitting…on a pole…anyway, the record is 196 days set by Daniel Baraniuk. Lucky for Danny, the record allowed him breaks every 2 hours and doesn’t include the ancient hermits known as Stylites.
A man now known as Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite entered a monastery early in his life and began displaying his devotion in some very strange ways. Once he was found unconscious with a girdle of palm fronds tied so tightly around his waist that he had to soak for days to remove the fibers from the wound. The rest of the monks, a little shocked, asked Simeon to leave the monastery. Simeon found a quaint little cave to call home, where he continued extensive fasting and also took to standing upright until his limbs gave out.
Simeon’s behavior attracted quite a bit of attention and crowds of pilgrims began to seek him out for counsel and prayer. Simeon became annoyed by his lack of time for his own purposes, so he built a platform on a four meter pillar to escape the crowds. Eventually his disciples helped him upgrade to the new 15 meter model, but the crowds still sought him out. 
Simeon would write letters and teach to the people below, becoming quite the powerful opinion leader that even emperors listened to for counsel.
Simeon Stylites died at in 459 AD after 36 years on his pillar. His legacy left not only many converts to Christianity, but also a century of imitators standing on poles. His imitators, not to be just your run-of-the-mill Stylite, took it up a notch. Ancient writings speak of a Stylite who never turned his face to the West in 25 years and another who spent 10 years in a tub held up by poles.
Although there were many men and women Stylites, eventually they faded out, although occasional revivals brought out Stylites in the East until the 12th century and in the Russian Orthodox Church until 1461. In 1984, Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel-san the balancing crane technique, but extremely smart scientists and theologians claim that this is not a reference to Stylists.
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