|
|
Our patron saint |
|
Ship of Fools has adopted
as its patron and example the coolest saint in all Christendom: St Simeon the Holy Fool, whose Feast Day we celebrate every 21st July.
For the story of his surprising life, read on. |
|
|
|
|
|
HE DESERT SAINTS of the early centuries were a wild and strange breed and none were
bred wilder or stranger than the saints of Syria. Some of them stood and
prayed for years on end without sitting down. Others lived on top of pillars
in the desert where they preached, wrote epistles and drew crowds of pilgrims.
Numbered among these maverick saints is our patron, St Simeon the Holy
Fool.
Simeon's saintly
career started out quite normally. It was the usual story: 29 years living
on lentils in an isolated cave next to the Dead Sea, at first struggling
against temptation and then advancing to an alarming degree of holiness.
But Simeon's story took a dramatic turn when he left his cave one day
and set out for the city of Emesa in Syria. Arriving at the city gate,
he found a dead dog on a dungheap, tied its leg to the rope around his
waist, and entered the city dragging the comatose canine behind him.
This was only the beginning. For Simeon had decided to play the fool
in order to mock the idiocy of the world and also to conceal his own identity
as a saint. His behaviour was eccentric and, of course, scandalous.
During the church
services, he threw nuts at the clergy and blew out the candles. In the
circus, he wrapped his arms around the dancing-girls and went skipping
and dancing across the arena. In the streets, he tripped people up, developed
a theatrical limp, and dragged himself around on his buttocks. In the
bath-house, he ran naked into the crowded women's section. On solemn fasting
days he feasted riotously, consuming vast amounts of beans with
predictable and hilarious results. In his lifetime, Simeon was regarded
as a madman, as an unholy scandal.
T WAS ONLY AFTER his death
that the secret life of Simeon came to light.
People started to talk about his acts of kindness and about his
strange and powerful miracles. There was the poor mule driver whose vinegar
Simeon turned into wine so that he could start a successful tavern. There
was the rich man who was saved from death when Simeon threw a lucky triple
six at dice. And there was the young man Simeon punched on the jaw to
save him from an affair with a married woman.
St Simeon the Holy
Fool was a secret saint, his story was a holy farce, and his life shows
how God chooses "the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; the
weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). |
|
|
|
|
|
For the stories of the unwitting disciples of St Simeon down the ages, visit our Loose Canons pages. |
|
|
|
Read more about St Simeon in Symeon the Holy Fool by Derek Krueger. |
|
|
|
|
|