Holy fools

What would you think about a man who climbed a fourteen meter high marble pillar because he wanted to be closer to God, and then stayed there at the top for the next forty years? I think most people nowadays would consider him mad but if you lived 1500 years ago you might sit below the pillar to listen to his wisdom, together with hundreds of others.

S:t Simeon the stylite did exactly this, we saw what is left of his pillar and the amazing ruins of the basilicas that surround it. These were erected after his death to his glory.

We camped outside the sight and in the evening had chamomile tea with the local guards and a Spanish man on his way to Jerusalem – by foot! It seemed appropriate to meet this pilgrim in such a place, and I couldn’t avoid making a comparison between the two men and their quests. José walks on average 35-40 km per day, every day for the last six months. It does seem like a kind of punishment of the body in the attempt to find some deeper meaning in life.

Asking the Muslim guards if they think S:t Simeon was crazy they strongly promoted the opposite. “Simeon was very holy man, very good man! He wanted to be close to God, that’s why he sat on the pillar. Very many people came to listen to him.”
According to the book The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool the Islamic society has a different approach to madness than the western. People with mental disorders are considered closer to God, a thought that might have been more common in the medieval west but is now long gone.