Monasticism: Simeon the PillarDweller

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Monasticism Simeon the Pillar-Dweller

• Monastic anecdotes.
• Spiritual warfare five stages of sin.
• Goals of monastic life.
• Simeon the Stylite.
• Functions of holy man.

Simeon the Pillar-Dweller (389-459).
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Spiritual warfare five stages of sin

• Provocation
• Coupling
• Assent
• Captivity
• Habit

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Goals of monastic life

• Purity of heart
• Ceaseless prayer
• Life according to the Beatitudes
• Self-mastery.
• Imitation of Christ
• Final goal eternal life

Ladder of Divine Assent John Climachus
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Remains of the pillar of St Simeon the Younger
Qalaat Semaan about 60 miles East from Antioch
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St Simeons whereabouts
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Simeon surrounded by visitors
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Simeon and his disciple Daniel
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The function of the holy man in Late Antiquity

• Miracle-worker
• Patron and protector
• Mediator between heaven and earth
• Intercessor who stands outside social relations

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Saints in the imagination of their contemporaries