LUCA lo STILITA, saint. — Born at Attia (Anatolia) in 879. The Constantinopolitan Synaxarion records his feast on 11 Dec., the anniversary of his death (979) and of his ascent to the column at Chalcedon (935).
Previously, from 933, he had remained on another column situated on one of his estates in Anatolia. He learned asceticism from two soldiers, disciples of a stylite, while he was fighting against the Bulgars. He practised marvellous abstinence; not infrequently he deprived himself of all food for eight days. From the column he heard confessions and sometimes, as in the case of Count Cyrus, through a messenger. Many call him “L. the younger” in order to distinguish him from his namesake Luca il Taumaturgo.
BIBL.: Critical text of the Vita in H. Delehaye, Les saints stylites, Bruxelles-Parigi 1923, pp. 195-237. To be consulted: H. Delehaye, ibid., pp. LXXXVI-CV; A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Διοφάνεσθα εἰς τὸν βίον τοῦ δαίου Ἀνναΐ, in Vizantiphilj Vremennik, 15 (1908), pp. 437-39; S. Vanderstuyf, Etude sur la Lue le Stylite, in Echos d'Orient, 12 (1909), pp. 138-44, 215-21, 271-81; 13 (1910), pp. 13-19, 140-48, 224-32; N. Festa, Note critiche alla vita di s. Luca Stilita, in Besturione, 3ª serie, 8 (1910), pp. 136-39. Emmanuel Candal