# Living on top of a pole



## cih1355 (Sep 16, 2008)

I was listening to a lecture series about the Middle Ages and I heard that Saint Simeon Stylites lived on top of a pole for 37 years. This was in Syria during the 5th century AD. I'm thinking that the pole he was living on was a pillar with a platform on the top of it. I thought that this was interesting.


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## LadyCalvinist (Sep 16, 2008)

But very uncomfortable!


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## FrielWatcher (Sep 16, 2008)

What is the point of asceticism?  It seems along the lines when catholic monks whip themselves or other things.


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## Southern Presbyterian (Sep 16, 2008)

I'm wondering what the logistics of such an existence would be.


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## N. Eshelman (Sep 16, 2008)

monk-kabob


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Sep 16, 2008)

We learned about this guy in my Patristics class at PTS. Supposedly he also was able to levitate and actually did not "sit" on the pole but levitated above it. The Ante-Nicene Fathers are unbelievable fascinating.


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Sep 16, 2008)

Its funny really because this sort of life is not for everyone so I always see it as a little selfish. While he is up there being holy he must have people running around on the ground making him food, collecting his deposits etc...

It is a bit like those people who don't like consumerism so they get everything they live off from the rubbish bins and skips - sure they don't fall into the trap of all this evil capitalism - but if the system didn't exist they wouldn't be able to live their 'ideal' lifestyle of budging off it.


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Sep 17, 2008)

I remember this guy too from ancient and medieval church history. It just begs the response: wiser eating grass!


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## Pergamum (Sep 17, 2008)

Wow, some poor sap had to carry away his excrement everyday so that he could be holy!


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## VictorBravo (Sep 17, 2008)

Abd_Yesua_alMasih said:


> Its funny really because this sort of life is not for everyone so I always see it as a little selfish. While he is up there being holy he must have people running around on the ground making him food, collecting his deposits etc...
> 
> It is a bit like those people who don't like consumerism so they get everything they live off from the rubbish bins and skips - sure they don't fall into the trap of all this evil capitalism - but if the system didn't exist they wouldn't be able to live their 'ideal' lifestyle of budging off it.



Reminds me of the quip about Ghandi: "it took a lot of money to keep him in poverty."


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## Pergamum (Sep 17, 2008)

ascetic/pathetic, what's the difference?


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## TimV (Sep 17, 2008)

When this thread was first opened, I tried to think of the name of the Saint who was said to have stood on one leg until the other fell off. Anyone? Almost certainly embellished with the years (as is possibly the above example) but still remarkable! Just not in a sane way.


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## py3ak (Sep 17, 2008)

I saw in National Geographic a man in Egypt, I think it was, who had kept one arm raised above his head for 10 years as a vow. When he tried to lower it again he couldn't.

As far as Ghandi goes, Orwell has some interesting things to say about him. Ghandi was always staying at the houses of extremely wealthy people, and Orwell and others considered him a sort of prop to British imperialism. 

The way to be an ascetic is to convince someone that you're holier than he is and can show him the counter-intuitive route to holiness. Then he'll be your disciple and enable you to live at your chosen level of discomfort.

That asceticism is selfish is sufficiently demonstrated by the nun who didn't bathe for forty years. Did it once cross her mind what those around her might have been thinking?


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## Mushroom (Sep 17, 2008)

> That asceticism is selfish is sufficiently demonstrated by the nun who didn't bathe for forty years. Did it once cross her mind what those around her might have been thinking?


Maybe she liked a lot of personal space...


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## cih1355 (Sep 18, 2008)

Just to let you know, I got that lecture series from the Teaching Company.


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