Symeon the Studite

Symeon Studites

Biography

Almost nothing is known about Simeon the Studite (920? - 987?), except that he was the spiritual master of Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022), some thirty years his junior, at the Monastery of Studios (Constantinople). The community of thought between disciple and master was so great that thirty-two chapters of the Ascetical Discourse (out of forty-one) were long attributed to the New Theologian. He does not seem to have been a rigorist in the ascetical field, but to have favoured the ways of humility, simplicity and prayer to attain mystical experience and obtain the visions of divine light which he himself is said to have received. His reputation for mysticism earned him the epithet "Pious".