5 January: Saint Simon Stylites

Today is the feast day of St Simeon Stylites. Here are 10 facts about him.

1. So, what is this saint famous for? Basically, for spending 36 years living on a small platform on top of a pillar in Syria.

2. His name comes from the Greek word for pillar, “Style”.

3. Western Christians celebrate his feast today but he has other feast days, too: 1 September in the Eastern Orthodox Church, 27 July in the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Monday after second Sunday of the Exaltation of the Cross in the Armenian Apostolic Church, and in the Coptic Orthodox church which uses a different calendar, 29 Pashons.

4. He was born in a town called Sis, which was in what is now Turkey. His father was a shepherd.

5. He entered a monastery as a teenager and immediately took on himself a regime of austerity that was too extreme even for the monks, so they threw him out. He then went to live in a hut. He stayed there about 18 months. It was here that he started to gain a following after not eating or drinking for the whole of Lent. This was hailed as a miracle.

6. Then he sought out an even smaller space on what is now the Sheik Barakat Mountain, just 20 metres in diameter. He wanted to dedicate his life to prayer and devotion but was constantly interrupted by people asking his advice or wanting him to pray for them. It was to escape these constant interruptions that he started living on a series of pillars. They got higher and higher off the ground until his last one, which was 15 metres/50 feet off the ground.

7. He got his food from small boys from the village who would climb up the pillar and give him flat breads and goats’ milk.

8. Even so, he wasn’t entirely isolated. People would still come from miles around to see him and some would climb up on ladders in order to talk to him. Sometimes he would preach sermons to the crowds below. He wrote letters, too, some of which survive to this day.

9. He died on 2 September 459; his body was found bent in prayer. He was buried near his pillar. A number of other extremely austere Christians copied him, including at least two more called Simon.

10. A large church was built in his honour, around the site where his pillar stood. The base of the style or column on which Simeon stood in in the centre of four basilicas built from an octagonal court towards the four points of the compass, forming a cross. The building was called the Qalaat Semaan ("the Fortress of Simeon") and the ruins are still there, although it’s said to have been hit by a Russian missile in 2016.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

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