Not long after I became an Episcopalian, a priest advised me to study the Saints and find a patron. And he gave me a paperback on the Saints, a through-the-year Calendar. I already knew about Doubting Thomas and wanted no more of him than I had already. No birth-date Saint struck a responsive chord, so I settled into reading through the Calendar, day by day, looking for someone I felt especially drawn to. After about seven months, I came upon Saint Simeon Stylites, who sought to enter heaven by extreme penances. Then, failing that, he built a tower and climbed toward it. A kindred spirit! With all the zeal and piety of a recent convert, I petitioned him to become my Patron.

When discussion turns to Christian Saints, Simeon Stylites is usually brought in as an example of just how weird some of these characters are. He’s the one who died atop a sixty-foot pillar (or Stylus). When he hadn’t stirred from his attitude of prayer for three days, someone went up to check. The date of record is January Fifth.

Simeon is famous for mortification of the flesh. During the forty days of Lent, he ate no food. Not wanting to jar his system, he would break his fast with a lettuce leaf and the bread and wine of Communion.

Putting the flesh to death. He was thrown out of one monastery when the stink emanating from Brother Simeon revealed its source to be a discarded plaited-palm well-rope rotting into his flesh. That was before he started having the stone pillars built, each successively higher than the one before. A real squirrel, right?

He wanted solitude, but, of course, everyone came to see God’s latest and most blatant advertisement for a Holy life. Some credited their conversion to him and came to be baptized, others to confess and receive penances, others, eventually even emperors, sought counsel. He was the human beacon that announced the Fifth Centennial of Christianity.

…

Meanwhile, into my life came the throes of an anxiety so intense that it drove me into a mad house. For the first time. Then came the throes of a passion that led into real delusions, real madness, and a second trip to Terrell State Hospital—Somewhere in there the matter of who was my Patron Saint had fled into the deeps of forgotten.

Thanks to hundreds of milligrams of Mellaril, I was drifting in a zombified depression though that hour’s hospital-provided therapeutic activity: some of us "clients" were making sandwiches for the group (to prepare us for careers in "food services"). Passing through the doorway between kitchen and dining room, I happened to glance up and see something designed to please kindergartners and, presumably, crazy people: an idiotically grinning squirrel, cradling a nut in his cartoon paws. And something flashed.

Yes he was up there—he still is up there—

praying for me.

***

If you're a mind to, send me your own thoughts on the Communion of the Saints - whether you've a Patron or other Saint with whom you've developed a close relationship on the way.

Thanks for your consideration.

In His Love,

Tom McClellan

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Thanks, Tom, for sharing Simeon Stylites.

I don't think I've ever had or at least known the name of any particular patron saint of my very own ... other than, of course, the mother of our Lord as well as our parish patron. Mary is sort of a lousy one to have, though, because she always seemed or rather seems to me to say, "Talk to my Son about that."

Then, I do, and that seems to work.

Blessings,

Rebecca

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Thanks for responding, Rebecca. Everyone's experience of the Communion of the Saints will necessarily be unique. My experience of Our Lady is that she's a fun date.

Tom

***

B. ROBIN GLYNN

Re. Cloud of Witnesses

I think the word witness has been an important word for me this last week. It started out in Play Back. In Play Back we "play back" people's stories. We act them out. We talked Tuesday about what an important thing it is to witness for someone their story. On Friday my family and I went to the September 11th. Exhibit in Fort Worth.

http://aolsvc.digitalcity.com/dallas/enertainment/event.adp?eid=108405

It was a sobering exhibit, which I expected, but it was also full of hope. There were the belongings of survivors. The tools of rescue workers. The hat and phone Mayor Giuliani was seen using as he walked through the streets of New York. The megaphone President Bush used to speak to the workers at ground zero. The highlight of the visit for me was the opportunity to fill out a card with my own witness to the events of that day. My 10 year old son filled out one too. These cards will be gathered as the exhibit travels the country and kept in the National Archive. The collected stories of the witnesses.

I read something, just today, at http://www.rzim.org

"Seeing, is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won't see it." Annie Dillard

As a Christian the word cloud calls to mind God appearing as a cloud in the desert to guide the Hebrews to a new land, the Promised Land. Could it be that our witness of the truth will bring us to the promise?

Heb 12:1 Therfore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth] , let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race set before us.
(The Amplified Bible)

If I see - witness - the story, then truth can be revealed. The false ditractions in life can be tossed aside, then I can live in a whole way, and enabled to love my brother.

Robin Glynn

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Thanks, Robin. As always, your reflections are thoughtful, and thought-provoking.

***

Hi Tom,

Love your writing style, simple, passionate, enjoyable. I was fascinated by your story and want to know more about how you picked St Simeon Stylite, the Elder as your patron saint?

I have folders for each month. I collect everything I can find (especially about Lesser Feasts and Fasts. But also Eastern and Western calendar people, and England characters).

How did Jan. 5th. get selected in the West? I can't find anything to tell me why. The Eastern Church observes his day on Sept. 1 (close to his date of death, Sept. 2). Even the Catholic Encyclopedia online didn't have info on the Jan. 5th. date.

Have you seen these two sites?

http://www.culham.info/cw/assemblies/021p_dragons.php

http://dirk.holoweb.net/~liam/pictures/oldbooks/Hone

and click on Saint Simeon.

The latter is a picture which I assume you might enjoy. The first site is a good site for teenagers.

Keep up the good work. You definitely have a gift for writing.

Faithfully yours,

Fr. Wylie+
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Dear Father Wylie,

Re. Style: Thanks for the praise. We all need that, true? Passionate has probably always been there (I was schooled to be an engage existentialist, y'know); Simple & Enjoyable - Wow, I really needed to hear that! I've been making a conscious effort to write "so that he who runs may read," honing my letter-to-the-editor skills, etc. Less like Merton stoned. Again, thanks.

Re. Tell me more: Okay, I added some depth to the Simeon Piece, thanks for the hint. But, enough about me. The information that you are composing your own Calendar of Saints makes a good appetizer, but where's the entre: your own experience of the Communion of Saints? Fr'instance, has a Patron picked you yet - the way it really happens in what Father Allen calls God's Economy?

Re. Feast Date for Saint Simeon: I haven't a clue. Re. Websites: Thanks.

Re. Saint Christopher (Carolyn said you'd asked about that):

SAINT CHRISTOPHER:
THE CHRIST-BEARER

The Christopher Legend, briefly: Christopher bore the Christ Child across a river - on the Child's way out of Egypt, according to some. Gradually, the Child became so heavy that Christopher, a giant orginally named Offero, barely made it. "Chylde, thou hast put me in great peryll," said Christopher. "I might bere no greater burden." To which the child answered, "Marvel thou nothing, for thou hast borne all the world upon thee, and its sins likewise."

Legends originate, we are told, in facts discernable down the dim reaches of a real past. Perhaps Christopher had his origin in a Fourth-Century Roman conscript from North Africa who was transported to Syria, where he took the name Christopher at baptism. Perhaps that Christopher was a reprobate before his conversion, as was the legendary Offero. Perhaps the mysterious Hermit who taught Offero the ways of God was originally Saint Peter of Alexandria. Perhaps the historic Christopher, martyred July 9, 308, was an exceptionally large man.

But legends also point to meanings beyond mere history. "This is an allegory on the name Christopher," says one commentator. "The child was Christ, and the river was the river of Death."

Here's another interpretation: Christopher's experience represents the experience of the Greco-Roman Civilization as it bore the increasing weight of the infant Christianity that, after three and a half centuries, reformed and began to replace it.

This day we celebrate together, as Episcopalians always celebrate together, at table with our Lord. We hear and receive the word, and bear forth the word into the world. We take into ourselves, as wafer and as wine, the very Word through which the world was created. And this Word, too, we bear forth into the world. But that is impossible. No mere mortal may contain the container of the universe. Indeed not all of us together, much less any one of us, could bear "all the world, and its sins likewise" - did not the bearer of all bear all the load.

***

Re. Durer's St. Christopher in narthex of St. C's: When the previous rector, Fr. Matt Tracy, first arrived, he felt uncomfortable with a Patron Saint who'd been recently purged from the Roman Calendar. He & Father Ray Ball (of nearby All Saints) toyed with the idea of forming a joint parish with a pair of canonical Saints as Patrons. Then a long-time Saint Christpher's parishoner, Warren Chase, a commercial artist & musician by trade, brought a large photo-reproduction of Albrecht Durer's Christopher, struggling under the weight of Jesus, and asked if it would be OK to hang it in the narthex... That settled the issue. Fr. Matt adapted: we were all urged to become Christ-bearers. Warren has passed on, as has Fr. Matt. Albrecht's brilliant portrayal of Christopher & Christ-Child remains.

As may you.

Tom

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2. Re. Saints:

Tom,

Not bitten yet by a particular saint. I flit around the flame of many like my name sake's habitual summer behavior. I dance close to the flame of several, but have adopted none as personally as you have. Your words are tantilizing and I will pray about them.

It was just a curiosity thing for me, your words about finding Simeon dead after three days (Jan 5th). I couldn't find that little tidbit. Or any earthly idea how we got the date in the Western calendar. The Episcopal church toys with approaching the Eastern Orthodox traditions more than the Western. There are biblical figures in the Roman calendar I have never figured out why we don't have in our lesser feasts and fasts. The only push in recent years has been to add contemporary figures as models of Christian behavior and conviction.

On the issue of St. Christopher's. Your info on comparing the legend to the development of the Church in the Greco-Roman world is fascinating. It sparks something to me. I tend to be cold hard facts (boring to the reader). You and Fr. Sam Portaro, "Brightest and Best: A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts" go beyond boring facts and touch the heart of the reader. I would like something of St. Christopher's legend in that vein that we could use repeatedly on bulletins, etc. Having it written by a member of our parish would even make it more special to me.

On a personal note I share this bit of humor with you. When I was praying about where I was called to serve, the process left me with two churches. One was St. Christopher's, Dallas; the other St. Jude's, Walton Beach, FL. I said to God, what are you trying to tell me. If you are calling me to either the patron of lost causes or the ousted and defunct (from the Roman church) Saint Christopher, what does that say about my ministry? Does that say I am a lost cause or a disqualified saint? There seemed to be a sense of irony in the search process for me about this. However, if God saw the irony or humor he remained silent to me, on that issue.

I am glad to be here. I am not worried about St. Christopher's place in facts or history. I just want to maximize the potential of the legend to focus on bearing Christ in our world and serving as a light to the world where we are. Your words tell me I must be on track, in the sense of continuing what the history of our name has meant to many of you.

Love in Christ,

Fr. Wylie+
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Fr. W,

Re. Saint Simeon Legend, the dead-for-three-days bit: Apocryphal jest recalled from a long-ago conversation with a clergyman whose exact identity I cannot now recall.

Re., Saint C's:  Recently the youth of St. C's, aided & abetted by Rock of Aged, staged a rock opera presenting the Saint Christopher Legend, by parishoner Kathy Candler.

Wylie Coyote in Shepherd's clothing...

Nice crook you've got there

Tom