CANON TO SAINT SYMEON STYLITES
INTRODUCTION
The author of the Canon to Saint Symeon Stylites is given in the Menaion as ‘Monk John’, the usual designation of Saint John of Damascus in the service books.
The canon is of unusual interest since the writer clearly had the life of saint written by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, in front of him as well as at least one other source. I hope to trace these other sources and to update this page shortly. For most of the canon he follows Theodoret closely, even to occasional verbal citations. In the translation that follows I have given the relevant passages from Theodoret after the troparion in a different typeface. My free translation is made from the critical edition in the French Sources Chrétiennes [volume 257, pages 158-215] of the Historia Philothea by Alice Leroy-Mohlingen in 1979.
Theodoret’s account of Saint Symeon is of the greatest importance, since he was personally acquainted with him and had visited him at his pillar a number of times. He describes vividly an occasion when, after the saint had told the crowds to ask for Theodoret’s blessing, he was mobbed by the enthusiastic pilgrims and only escaped being smothered by the saint’s shouting to them to stand back.
THE CANON
The Acrostic,
without the Theotokia, is:
Accept the hymn, O blessed Symeon.
By Monk John
Ode 1. Tone 8. Let us sing to the Lord.
As with the broken instrument of my tongue I weave this song for you, God-bearing Symeon, grant me through your supplications divinely inspired light of knowledge.
Persians, Ethiopians, Indians and Scythians and a multitude of Arabs recognised your wisdom, Father, and they glorified Christ who is glorified through you.
Persians, Medes and Ethiopians knew him, while his fame had reached the Scythians nomads and taught them of his love of toil and wisdom. [Life 1] A number of the manuscripts of Theodoret read here not ‘Medes’, but ‘Indians’. This Canon is not cited in the critical apparatus.
You were filled with spiritual grace; for, like Jacob, David and Moses, you appeared from the sheepfolds as leader of spiritual flocks, O blessed one.
He was first taught by his parents to shepherd the flocks, so that in this way he might be compared to the great men, the patriarch Jacob, chaste Joseph, Moses the lawgiver, David the king and Micheas the prophet. [Life 2]
Theotokion
Immaculate Mother of God, hail honoured one, who contained in your womb the uncontainable God, entreat that those who sing your praise you may be redeemed.
Ode 3. Plant your fear, Lord.
Swiftly fleeing the icy blast of the winds, you boldly reached a dwelling of salvation, Symeon, from which you plucked the fruit of life that does not age.
Once when there was heavy snow and the flocks were forced to stay inside, he profited from this break and went to the holy church with his parents. [Life 2]
Gladly you inclined your obedient ear to the Master who promised blessedness; and blessed was the way of life you found.
He said that he heard the voice of the Gospel calling those who weep and mourn blessed, but those who laugh wretched. [Life 2]
Having welcomed the seeds of the word in the furrows of your heart, with floods of tears, you reaped for Christ a full ear of virtues.
Having welcomed the seeds of God’s word and hidden them well in the deep furrows of his soul, he hurried, so he told me, to the nearby shrine of the holy martyrs. [Life 3]
Theotokion.
Bride of God, ineffably you conceived the Saviour and Lord, who from troubles delivers us who call on you in truth.
Ode 4. Lord, I have heard.
It was not on sand but on the deepest toils that you laid the foundation of your ascetic life, All blessed one, and built an unshakeable tower of virtues.
He had the following vision in a dream. ‘I seemed’, he said, ‘to be digging foundations. Then I heard someone standing there say that I must dig the trench still deeper. So, as he had ordered me, I increased the depth and again tried to take a break. But once more he commanded me to dig and not to relax my efforts. Having told me to do this three or four times, finally he said that the depth was sufficient and ordered me to build without toil, because the toil had ceased and the work of building would be without toil’. [Life 3]
The roughest rope your body’s lot to nail it to the fear of the spirit, you found, O Venerable one, the allotment of a divine inheritance.
I heard from him and from the present superior of the same flock the story of how he once took a rope made of palm leaves — it was extremely rough even the touch of the hands — and strapped it round his waist, not putting it outside, but attaching to the skin itself. And he pulled it so tight that the part of his body to which it was attached became an open sore all the way round. [Life 5] The reference to the ‘divine inheritance’ is to Psalm 15,6 ‘The ropes [lines] have fallen for me in the best places, and my inheritance is the best’.
The hidden passions of the body ebbed away in rotting decay, that even the worms feared you as you slept.
Imitating the life-giving Dead after his voluntary passion, as in a tomb you placed yourself in a gloomy well.
When he had reached the more deserted parts of the mountain, he found a dry cistern that was not too deep, got down into it and began to offer hymns to God. [Life 6]
Theotokion.
Immaculate Mary, implore the God whom you bore to grant your servants pardon of their offences.
Ode 5. Enlighten us.
Christ showed you, Symeon, to be a new Daniel; for, through a revelation, he brought you unharmed from a pit infested with wild beasts.
When the shepherds had showed them [his fellow monks] the cistern, they at once gave loud shouts, then, fetching a rope, they pulled him up, not without great difficulty, for going up is by no means as easy as going down. [Life 6] In the Syriac life this has become a sinister cave, in which the devil torments the saint with visions of every kind of reptile and savage beast.
Offering your whole self to the Lord, you bared yourself to the hostile elements of snow, ice and heat.
You were shown to be a new Moses and a new Elias, throughout your life living for the forty days on one meal, venerable Father.
In his zeal constantly to increase his wealth of virtue, he wished, like those godlike men, Moses and Elias, to remain without food for forty days. [Life 7]
Theotokion.
Ever implore your Son and our God, pure Mary who knew not wedlock, to send down his mercy upon us the faithful.
Ode 6. Grant me a tunic.
Blessed Father, Christ displayed you as a worker of signs and wonders, having shown you to be a dwelling place of divine force.
His reputation spread far and wide and it was only the people nearby but those who lived many days journey away who hastened to him. Some brought people who were paralysed, others asked help for the sick, others begged to become fathers, and what they could obtain naturally they sought to obtain through him. [Life 11]
Your body was raised on the column as on a cross; therefore you have been glorified with Christ who was raised on a tree for your sake.
Visitors came in ever increasing numbers and all tried to touch him and to pluck a blessing from his clothing of skins. To begin with he found this excess of honour misplaced, then, unable to stand the fatigue of the business, he had the idea of taking his stand on a pillar. [Life 12]
Having found a pathway in the air, inspired Symeon, bring up to the heights of heaven those who faithfully sing your praise.
To begin with he had it made six cubits high, then twelve, after this twenty two and now it is thirty six. For he longed to fly up to heaven and to abandon this earthly life. [Life 12]
Theotokion.
We the faithful declare you, Mother of God, to be the temple and ark of God, living bridal chamber and gate of heaven.
Ode 7. Youths who honoured God.
You ended a drought for the despairing and opened for them the gates of rain, you steadied the shaken land, and taught peoples to cry: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Theodoret only speaks of Symeon’s having prophesied a drought, but the Syriac life recounts his having ended one through his prayers.
As a mighty beacon of the Church and sun of many lights, O Symeon, you sent out beams in all directions, enlightened peoples and taught them to cry: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
His station on the pillar enlightened the Ishmaelites, enslaved by tens of thousands to the gloom of idolatry. For, placed as on a lampstand, this radiant lamp shed his rays on every side like the sun. [Life 13]
Streams flowing together from every side, a sea of men welded together in the fold of your ascetic discipline, Servant of Christ, was taught by you to cry out: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
As I said, one could see Iberians, Armenians ands Persians arriving and accepting holy Baptism. While Ishmaelites arriving in groups of three or four hundred at a time, sometimes even thousands, renounced their ancestral error with acclamation, smashed in front of that great beacon the idols that they had worshipped, abandoned the orgies of Aphrodite and taken part in the divine Mysteries. [Life 13]
Of old in the arms of the Elder, but now in the tables of your heart, Venerable Symeon, Christ took his rest by his invisible power; therefore you cried: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Theotokion.
It was fitting for him who took flesh without seed to come forth from you, immaculate Virgin; for you, O Pure one, brought forth him who surpasses all things, to whom with hymns we shout and cry: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Ode 8. The One glorified in the holy mountain.
Having left every attachment and pitying a mother’s weakness, as though living, you appeared after death, crying out: Praise the Lord and highly exalt him to all the ages.
You gave strength to a paralysed sick youth and ordered him to carry the tribal chief like his bed on his shoulders as he praised the Lord and highly exalted him to all the ages.
On another occasion I saw a quite remarkable wonder. Someone, who was in fact a Saracen tribal chief, came and implored the saint to help a man who limbs had become paralysed during the journey. When the man had been brought before him, he ordered him to renounce the idolatry of his ancestors. When the man gladly obeyed and had done as he was ordered, the saint asked him if he believed in the Father, the Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit. When he had confessed that he believed, the saint said, ‘Since you believe in these names, arise!' When he had arisen, he ordered him to carry the chieftain, who was a very large man, to his tent on his shoulders. He took him and departed, while everyone present uttered hymns of thanksgiving to God. [Life 16]
The One who made Job shine brightly through suffering, O servant of Christ, turned you, when your flesh was suppurating with rottenness, into a priceless pearl, as he glorified you, Symeon, to all the ages.
They say that, as a result of his standing, a malignant ulcer developed on his left leg and that great quantities of pus oozed from it continually. [Life 23]
At Symeon’s entreaties, Master, you summoned a boastful robber chief, as of old Thief on the Tree; therefore we praise you and highly exalt you to all the ages.
Theotokion.
Virgin Mother of God, who received the Angel’s ‘Hail!’, bore the Lord of glory and made the light dawn on the world, we all hymn you and glorify you.
Ode 9. The One revealed on the mountain
As one who had shown himself a king through steadfastness in sufferings, godly Symeon, Christ approved you as sharer of his royal rule; therefore in hymns we magnify you.
Granted the grace of healing from the inexhaustible treasury of the Spirit, godly Symeon, you reward with healings those who celebrate your memory.
You walked the path of heavenly virtue, you displayed the prize from on high, you have reached the heavenly dwellings: intercede that our souls may be saved.
Theotokion.
You were shown, O Virgin, to be the bush that burned yet was not consumed by fire, by conceiving without seed the God and Saviour of the world, whom we unceasingly magnify.
All that remains of Saint
Symeon’s pillar
at Qal’at Sim’an.