SAINT SIMEON STYLITES, THE YOUNGER

From Evagrius, Hist.1. 5, c. 21, p. 448, and1. 6, c. 23, p. 471, with the notes of Reading and W. Lowth, Ibid. Cambridge, 1720. Jos. Assemani, Comm. in Cal. Univ. Also Janning, t. 5, Maij, p. 298.

A. D. 592.

THIS saint was born at Antioch in 512, and retired, when yet a child, into the monastery of Thaumastore, or the Admirable Mountain, situated in the deserts of Syria, near Antioch. For several years he served a holy hermit who was a monk of the same place, and lived not far from the community upon a pillar. Simeon labored with his whole strength to be a faithful imitator of all his virtues. Meeting one day with a young leopard, and not knowing what it was, he put a rope about its neck, and thus brought it to his master, saying he had found a cat. The good hermit, seeing the furious beast tamely obeying a child, began to conceive greater thoughts of him; and not long after, in 526, having had sufficient experience of his fervor, ordered him to make a pillar, and to live upon it. The youth obeyed, as if it had been the voice of God, and lived successively upon two pillars, within the inclosure of the monastery, threescore and eight years, in great austerity, and in the exercises of assiduous contemplation. God manifested his sanctity by a great number of miracles, which he performed chiefly in curing the sick, foretelling things to come, and knowing the most secret thoughts of others. Evagrius, the historian, was an eye-witness to many, and assures us that he had experienced his knowledge of the thoughts of others in himself, when he visited him for spiritual advice.* A great concourse of people of all nations, as well Romans as Barbarians, resorted to this eminent servant of God, who was honored by the whole world, particularly by the emperor Mauritius. When the Samaritans effaced the holy images that were in the churches, St. Simeon wrote to the emperor Justin in defence of the respect which is due to them. This letter is quoted by St. John Damascen, and by the second council of Nice. The saint fell ill about the year 592, and Gregory, the patriarch of Antioch, being informed that he was at the point of death, went in all haste to assist at his last moments; but, before he arrived, St. Simeon was departed to the Lord. He is honored by the Greeks on the 24th of May, and by the Latins on the 3d of September.

The fervor of the saints in bewailing their sins, in singing the divine praises, and in sighing after the glorious society of the heavenly spirits, made them seem to forget all concerns of the world. In these heavenly exercises they found the greatest delights and the most holy and pure joy The great St. Antony having spent the whole night in prayer, when the morning called him to other duties, was heard to lament that the rising sun interrupted the sweet entertainment of his soul with God: though, by recollection and frequent aspirations at his manual labor and other employments. he in some measure continued his prayer the whole day. What a reproach is the holy ardor of the saints to our sloth, delicacy, and self-love! How loudly does the pillar of St. Simeon condemn our indolence! Nature, it is true, is weak, and stands in need of some relief; but if a lazy, unwilling mind is to be judge of its want of strength, the judgment will be partial in favor of our passions.

SAINT REMACLUS, BISHOP OF MAESTRICHT, C.

THIS holy pastor, who was a native of Aquitain, leaving the court of king Clotaire, passed some time in the study of the holy scriptures under St. Sulpitius of Bourges, and was appointed by St. Eligius first abbot of the monastery and seminary which he founded at Solignac, two leagues from Limoges, in the year 631. Our saint was afterward obliged to take upon him the government of the abbey of Cougnon, in the duchy of Luxembourg, but was soon after called to the court of king Sigebert, who, in 645, had succeeded his father, Dagobert I. in Austrasia, leaving all the rest of France to his younger brother, Clovis II. Both these brothers were religious, and their reigns peaceable. Sigebert made use of the advice of St. Remaclus in founding the royal abbey of Stabuletum, now called Stavelo, in the Ardennes, in the bishopric of Maestricht and duchy of Limburg. The same prince founded the abbey of Malmandurium, now called Malmedi, also in the forest of Ardenne. The direction of both these foundations was committed to St. Remaclus, till, upon the resignation of St. Amand, in 650, he was chosen bishop of Maestricht,1 in which charge he labored with great humility and zeal in preaching to his flock, and relieving the poor. Sighing under the weight of exterior employs, and fearing he should, amidst them, forget himself, he procured the consent of his clergy and of king Childeric II. to resign his see to St. Theodord, and to retire to Stavelo, which design he carried into execution in 662. The reputation of his sanctity moved many noblemen and others to embrace a penitential monastic state under his direction in that house. Remaclus walked before them in the narrow paths of true Christian perfection, encouraging them, both by words and example, to fervor in all religious exercises. He remitted nothing in his austerities on account of his old age, but rather strove continually to redouble his pace as he drew nearer to the end of his course, lest, by sloth in the end, he should forfeit his crown. In his last moments he strongly exhorted his religious brethren to the love and practice of perfect self-denial, obedience, holy poverty, patience in painful employments and labors, assiduity in holy meditation and prayer, the most profound humility, and constant peace and union. He died about the year 664, and was buried at Stavelo. His body is still preserved there, and the church, when rebuilt by St. Poppo in 1040, was dedicated to God under the patronage of Saint Remaclus. One arm was given to the abbey of Solignac, in 1268; and some small portions of his relics to the churches of Paderborn and Bamberg. See his life, compiled by a monk of Stavelo, about the year 850, extant in Mabillon (Act. Bened. p. 494.) A second life, written in the following century by Heriger, abbot of Laubs; and The Triumph of Saint Remaclus, in two books, compiled by Geoffrey, prior of Stavelo, in 1070, with an account of many miracles; also a MS. life of this saint, written by Thietmar, abbot of Gemblours, in 1100. See likewise Le Cointe, Annales Eccl. Franc. ad ann. 662, Miræus, Fleury,1. 38, n. 58