I love to get high
but man, this is ridiculous
The Simeon Stylites were certainly an unusual order and I have to say, they may well have gotten it right. I hope Maxime Qavtaradze lives a long life of prayer and devotion. Lord knows we can all use the prayers.
H/T Portly Pirate.
I dunno…sometimes I think that might not be a bad idea. Although the plateau I would settle on would need to be self sustaining. I am not such an egotist I would want anyone to follow my path.
Probably what keeps me from the ministry. That and my message is not one of comfort.
I’ve noticed that few hermits are ever really true solitaries; they all seem to need a support group to allow them to live their solitary lives. The long hunters and mountain men of early US history were closer to self-sustaining than most religious hermits.
That part of Georgia is gorgeous though, isn’t it? Not too different than western North Carolina.
If you gotta live on a pedestal, thats a good spot.
Robert is right. In the East, any hermit (anchorite) is required to have a priest or bishop who is his/her spiritual adviser. This has been since St. Antony of Egypt, the first monk. They may be materially self-sufficient, but always must check their work against the Church to make sure they don’t drift in their solitude into heresy. For a while in those days in what was known as the Greek East, living on a pillar was the fashion, then when the Muslims came through, they put an end to that. Getting struck by lightning was a sign that you weren’t all that right with God, but if He left you be, you were ok. All that is left of St. Simeon’s pillar is the base, since it was taken a chip at a time by the faithful. Word is that since he never came down, his poo from over the years covered the column like wax running down the side of a candle. I’d like to think the occasional rainstorm cleaned the area quite well, and since he was a vegetarian, it would be more like goose droppings than what you’d expect.
If I remember right, there was a spat of telephone pole and billboard platform sitters in the 1970’s who’d spend a month up there or so to raise money for charity, but that lasted only a couple of years.
Here’s a great video of anchorites in Romania today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqEDhKKPl-o
So many people today are down right nuts, maybe because stuff like this is seen as crazy, and maybe a spell in solitude and prayer can get many back in a good way. The old man nails it all at 8:20.