Reading= 1Cor 9:24-27 Gospel = Lk 18:18-30

Sanctoral Cycle

St. George Maronite Catholic Church Sept. 1st.

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ST. SIMON THE STYLITE
Synaxarion for Memorials without a Proper Office:

Simon is the most famous of the stylites or saints who spent their days seated on high platforms or pillars. The immense monastery which had been built around his pillar still exists in the environs of Alepo. The celebrated historian Theodoret who was a contemporary of Simon, had personally met him and wrote about his life. Simon was born near Antioch in the year 392. While still a young man, he gave himself over to the service of God in the desert. When he later sought solitude away from the crowds that pressed around him, he established himself on a pillar which grew higher and higher above the crowds. He thus lived between heaven and earth for about forty years, preaching and exhorting the crowds from high upon his pillar. Numerous individuals who came to him were converted by his preaching. He died in the year 459. Devotion to Saint Simon spread throughout Syria and in the Lebanon. The monastery named after him and the sight of his pillar were the objects of pilgrimages throughout the East.

May the prayers of St. Simon the Stylite be with us. Amen.