Stylites?

[DL82]

The guys who lived as hermits on poles in the old days.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylites

Do the Eastern churches still have stylites today? In the present age of fly-on-the-wall TV and 24-hour webcams, such a public witness of private devotion might be regaining relevance.

 

[East_and_West]

The guys who lived as hermits on poles in the old days.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylites

Do the Eastern churches still have stylites today? In the present age of fly-on-the-wall TV and 24-hour webcams, such a public witness of private devotion might be regaining relevance.

I hope there aren’t anymore. I don’t see the usefulness of such nonsense. It seems like it could border on a dangerous gnostic distaste for all physical goods.

 

[Woodstock]

While I don’t care if they are on poles, in caves, or in forest huts, I hope there are austere hermits who are out there praying for me day and night and who can serve as starets to those who are seeking true guidance.

 

[jimmy]

The guys who lived as hermits on poles in the old days.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylites

Do the Eastern churches still have stylites today? In the present age of fly-on-the-wall TV and 24-hour webcams, such a public witness of private devotion might be regaining relevance.

The last one was in the nineteenth century. It was a Russian I think. It was originally a Syrian thing but the Russians took it up as well when they became Christian.

 

[jimmy]

I hope there aren’t anymore. I don’t see the usefulness of such nonsense. It seems like it could border on a dangerous gnostic distaste for all physical goods.

So does fasting seem to border on gnosticism and the rejection of the passions can seem like that too. The Syrians used to run around pretty much naked too and they would beg for their food. They had some extreme ascetics. Spirituality can take on different forms. If there is no use for these ascetics then it is just as easy to say there is no use for any hermit or any contemplative monk or nun. The Carthusians and the Carmelites are useless then.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Once St. Simeon the Stylite was visited by the Bishop and his suite, who ordered him to come down. He agreed to do so, and the Bishop said, “No, Father. Stay where you are. Since you are willing to be obedient to the Church, we know now that God has called you to this.”

 

[Madaglan]

I hope there aren’t anymore. I don’t see the usefulness of such nonsense. It seems like it could border on a dangerous gnostic distaste for all physical goo

In William Dalrymple’s travel narrative, From the Holy Mountain, Dalrymple describes one dialogue with an Oriental Orthodox ecclesiastic who mentions the recent existence of stylites and other Christian ascetics long thought to have only existed in the early Church.

 

[East_and_West]

So does fasting seem to border on gnosticism and the rejection of the passions can seem like that too. The Syrians used to run around pretty much naked too and they would beg for their food. They had some extreme ascetics. Spirituality can take on different forms. If there is no use for these ascetics then it is just as easy to say there is no use for any hermit or any contemplative monk or nun. The Carthusians and the Carmelites are useless then.

I have no problem with reasonable mortifications. But those that border on hysterical, I don’t believe those are healthy at all. Sitting on top of a pole does nothing to advance the kingdom of God. It is simply self glorification and psychologically unhealthy. We do not earn our way to God. He is a gift to us. This is why I believe that St. Therese the little flower is such a beautiful saint. She would never have participated in something that is either gnostic or an act of self glory.

 

[Ghosty]

The Syrians used to run around pretty much naked too and they would beg for their food. They had some extreme ascetics.

You mean the Syrians were Franciscans?

Peace and God bless!

 

[Volodymyr_988]

I don’t know if it was St. Symeon or St. Daniel, but one of the more famous Stylites used to put maggots on his flesh so they could get a head start on the job that they were to do after his death.:bigyikes:

 

[jimmy]

I have no problem with reasonable mortifications. But those that border on hysterical, I don’t believe those are healthy at all. Sitting on top of a pole does nothing to advance the kingdom of God. It is simply self glorification and psychologically unhealthy. We do not earn our way to God. He is a gift to us. This is why I believe that St. Therese the little flower is such a beautiful saint. She would never have participated in something that is either gnostic or an act of self glory.

Who says it is about self glorification or working your way to heaven? Mother Teresa’s works could be just as easily construed as attempts to work yourself to heaven or self-glorification. I wonder what you would think about the fools for Christ who do rediculous things. I wonder what you would say about those monks who do what ever their spiritual fathers tell them, even if it is considered to be sinful like stealing. You would probably reject them as well.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I don’t know if it was St. Symeon or St. Daniel, but one of the more famous Stylites used to put maggots on his flesh so they could get a head start on the job that they were to do after his

It was St. Simeon.

But maggots are still frequently used for this purpose medically–to consume necrotic flesh to promote healing.

 

[Volodymyr_988]

Chapter VII
When he came to himself he said to his foot, “Don’t come back down, but stay like that until my death, until the Lord summons me, sinner that I am.”
Meanwhile the devil had coolly wounded him in the thigh, which became infected with a horde of maggots which scattered out of his body and wriggled about at his feet on the column, and from thence fell down to the ground. It was a certain youth called Antony, his assistant, who witnessed this and wrote it down. Simeon told him to collect the maggots which had fallen and bring them up to him. And he put them back into his wound as Job did.
“Eat what the Lord gives you,” he said to the maggots

I think that’s reading into is as far as a medical therapy is concerned.

vitae-patrum.org.uk/page23.html

 

[Isa_Almisry]

I have no problem with reasonable mortifications. But those that border on hysterical, I don’t believe those are healthy at all. Sitting on top of a pole does nothing to advance the kingdom of God. It is simply self glorification and psychologically unhealthy. We do not earn our way to God. He is a gift to us. This is why I believe that St. Therese the little flower is such a beautiful saint. She would never have participated in something that is either gnostic or an act of self glory.

St. Therese is not the yardstick of the Church.

And sanctity takes many forms.

I submit, that if standing on a pillar didn’t advance the kingdom of God, then you have to explain all the pilgrims who came to see St. Simeon and his pillar (a stump now from all the chips taken by pilgrims) as far away as the British Isles.

Many would say fasting for forty days would be self glorification and psychologically unhealthy, let alone going into a desert and doing it.

 

[Formosus]

So was Saint Francis also in it for self glorification and border line gnostic? He did some pretty intense stuff as well. And as others pointed out, all the Syrians were pretty ascetic. Perhaps you would tell me that St. Maroun was self glorifying and gnostic as well when he lived out in the open air all day.

 

[jimmy]

So was Saint Francis also in it for self glorification and border line gnostic? He did some pretty intense stuff as well. And as others pointed out, all the Syrians were pretty ascetic. Perhaps you would tell me that St. Maroun was self glorifying and gnostic as well when he lived out in the open air all day.

Just to further what you have said. St. Maroun is what the Syrians were like. The Book of Steps was a pre-monastic Syrian spirituality book. What you mention as St. Maroun’s way of life is the way of life which they lived. They lived in the open air, almost naked and they beged for their food.

No one would say that St. Antony was gnostic simply because he took Christ’s words literal and gave up all that he had and went and lived in the desert. As Isa said, sanctity takes many forms.

 

[East_and_West]

Who says it is about self glorification or working your way to heaven? Mother Teresa’s works could be just as easily construed as attempts to work yourself to heaven or self-glorification. I wonder what you would think about the fools for Christ who do rediculous things. I wonder what you would say about those monks who do what ever their spiritual fathers tell them, even if it is considered to be sinful like stealing. You would probably reject them as well.

Mother Theresa didn’t sit on top of a post like these people so they could stare at some ridculous level of self mortification and say, “oh look what she can do.”

 

[East_and_West]

St. Therese is not the yardstick of the Church.

And sanctity takes many forms.

I submit, that if standing on a pillar didn’t advance the kingdom of God, then you have to explain all the pilgrims who came to see St. Simeon and his pillar (a stump now from all the chips taken by pilgrims) as far away as the British Isles.

Many would say fasting for forty days would be self glorification and psychologically unhealthy, let alone going into a desert and doing it.

So people have chips from these pillars. Big deal.

 

[Woodstock]

Your lack of respect for an entire category of saints and forefathers in the Church is remarkable. That you do not connect with the way they were called to serve God is understandable, but to minimize their faith and then to disregard it as self-serving, gnostic, and heretical is beyond the pale, especially considering that they are saints and we are not.

 

[Formosus]

You are basically discounting the entire Syriac Tradition of the Church as gnostic and self glorifying. Thats absurd!