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spirit’s food came back often, and he excused himself and went a long way from them thinking it a shame that he should be seen eating by others.” Saint Anthony adds, “we should give all our time to the soul rather than to the body. A little time indeed we must, out of necessity, allow to the body, but in the main, we must devote ourselves to the soul and see that it may not be dragged down to the pleasures of the body, but rather than the body become a subject to the soul.”11
(Saint Anthony’s example was a tremendous influence on Saint Augustine of Hippo whose writings date back to early 5th century c.e.)
Saint Simeon Stylites (390?-459)12 is another famous desert ascetic who fasts and stands. He likes mortification. He likes to stand on very toll polls for 40 days each year without food. Yet, because of his fasting he doesn’t have the strength to stand on his pillar. The story says,
“he sits and then lies down... but when we was not willing to come down...it was by attaching a beam to the pillar and tying himself to the beam with
11 Stouck, Mary-Ann. Medieval Saints - A Reader (Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures, 4) N.Y.: Broadview Press, 1999.
12 A Syrian ascetic and pillar saint, born in Sisan (possibly the modern Samandagi, Turkey). He withdrew from a monastery near Antioch and in 423 took up residence on a very small platform atop a stone pillar, which fact accounts for his name, Stylites (Greek, “of a pillar”). After leaving this structure, which was about 1.8 m (about 6 ft) high, he lived on a succession of pillars, each higher than its predecessor. He made his final home atop an 18.3-m (60-ft) pillar, from which he did not descend during the last 30 years of his life. Pilgrims came from many countries to hear him preach. He converted many nonbelievers to Christianity and had numerous disciples called Stylites. Pillar saints occasionally have been found in the East, even in recent centuries. Simeon's traditional feast day is January 5. Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002. 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
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