Symeon the New Theologian

Symeon Neotheologus

Biography

The life of Simeon the New Theologian is well known to us thanks to Nicetas Stethatos, who was at the same time his disciple, his biographer and the publisher of his works.

Simeon was born in 949 in Galatai in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor), to a family of minor provincial nobility; at a very young age he went to Constantinople, where he acquired a certain education. In 977, Simeon renounced the worldly life and career that his father wanted him to embrace in the service of the Emperor, and at the age of twenty-seven he entered the famous Monastery of Studios. There he chose Simeon the Pious as his spiritual master, who had a profound influence on his own mystical experience; a few months later (978) he moved to the Monastery of St. Mamas, where he became, at the age of thirty-one, a hegumen, after being ordained a priest. He restored this monastery materially and spiritually and soon became famous in Constantinople for his holiness, his wisdom, his sermons and remarkable writings; he was loved and venerated, but also criticised and attacked. Facing growing hostility from 1003 onwards, suspected in his doctrine and being reproached for the services he instituted in veneration of Simeon the Pious († 987), he resigned from his office as hegumen in 1005, before being condemned to exile in 1009. He found refuge on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, where he founded a new monastery; he remained there, even after his rehabilitation, until his death in 1022, surrounded by a few disciples. Simeon's extant writings include catecheses, theological and ethical treatises, hymns, a letter on confession, three other letters and a Dialogue with the Scholastic. His spiritual theology, wholly inspired by his personal experience, has its limits and is debatable on certain points.