STYLITE (from Greek στύλος « column »). - An anchorite who lived on the top of a column. Almost entirely ignored in the West, the stylites were quite numerous in the East, especially in Syria and Mesopotamia; nor are examples of stylites lacking in Egypt, Anatolia, Palestine and Greece. The bizarre and heroic inventor of this kind of asceticism was St. Simeon (v.), called precisely the Stylite, in the 5th century, and among the principal imitators mention must be made of St. Daniel, St. Luke, St. Alypius. The stylites flourished anew around the 10th century, then gradually disappeared.
A pagan origin is not to be attributed to this system of penance; but historically it is established that St. Simeon devised the method, induced by personal circumstances. Moreover, in Syria, in contrast with the manner of the Egyptian cenobites, the anchorites found very strange ways of penance. The stylites were neither madmen nor proud, although their method was censured by the Egyptians as ostentation. They were extremely severe with themselves, but moderate in the counsels given to their disciples. They do not represent therefore a deviation of monasticism, but rather a characteristic branch of Eastern anchoritism.
Many times the stylite's column was an ancient ruin; sometimes it was erected on purpose, as in the case of St. Simeon. His column, whose base is still preserved, was 16-18 m high. Some stylites had several columns at their disposal. The typical column consisted of steps for access to the base, a base, a shaft, a capital, a balustrade or parapet, and even a little cell like a nest, but some, for greater penance, refused such shelter. The top of the column was reached by a movable ladder or by a rope. Often monasteries formed around the columns; the concourse of pagan and Christian pilgrims was frequent, and among them some emperors, attracted by the holiness of the stylites, whose penance was extraordinary. Very many indeed scarcely ever came down from the column, on which they died. The stylites ordinarily kept standing, practicing the "stasis", so that ulcers of the feet were frequent; sometimes they succumbed to exposure. To this severe penance they added most austere fasts and reduced to a minimum the sleep taken while leaning on the balustrade or sitting on a stool. Simeon, for example, kept vigil in prayer the whole night and until the ninth hour, then conferred with the devout who had come to the column, and toward sunset resumed prayer. The liturgical life of the stylites was reduced to a minimum. Sometimes they received the Eucharist raised up by means of a rope or brought by the deacon by way of the ladder. There was no lack of some priestly ordinations of stylites, which sometimes took place with the extension of hands by the bishop below.
Some resemblance to the stylites was had by the anchorites who lived perched on some tree, called for that reason "dendrites" (v.); they were always fewer than the stylites and did not form a true category as the latter did.
Bibliography2 works
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina