Our Venerable Father Simeon of the Wondrous Mountain
This wonderful saint Simeon was born in
Antioch in the year 522 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Justin the
Elder. His father perished in an earthquake and he was left alone
with his mother Martha. At age six, he withdrew to the desert to a
spiritual father John under whose guidance he submitted himself to a
life of austere fasting and prayerful asceticism to the astonishment
of all who saw him. Enduring horrible demonic temptations, he
received great comfort and grace from the Lord and His angels. The
Lord Christ appeared to him under the guise of a handsome youth.
After this vision, a great love for Christ burned in Simeon's heart.
He spent many years on a "pillar" praying to God and
chanting psalms. Under God's guidance, he withdrew to a mountain
named "Wonderful" by the Lord Himself. Because of the name
of this mountain, Simeon was surnamed the "Man of the Wonderful
Mountain." Because of his love for God, he was endowed with the
rare gift of grace, by which he healed every infirmity, tamed wild
beasts, discerned into distant parts of the world and the hearts of
men. He left his body and gazed at the heavens and conversed with
angels, frightened and cast out demons, prophesied, at times lived
without sleep for thirty days and even longer without food and
received nourishment from the hands of angels. The words of the Lord
were completely fulfilled in him: "He that believes in me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall
he do" (St. John 14:12). In the year of our Lord 596 A.D. and in
the seventy-fifth year of his life, St. Simeon presented himself to
the Lord that he, together with the angels, may satisfy himself
gazing upon the face of God.
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