Social Aspects of Stylitism in the Late Antiquity

Danilov Andrei Aleksandrovich Master's Degree, Department of Ancient and Medieval History, National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod 603000, Russia, Nizhegorodskaya oblast', g. Nizhnii Novgorod, ul. Piskunova, 3 korpus 4, of. 3 korpus 4 An.Danilov@icloud.com Other publications by this author

In historical science, the study of stolpism traditionally boils down mainly to the study of the lives of one or more Stylites ^{[1, p. 109-198]}, or to the description of stolpism as an extreme form of asceticism ^{[2, p. 137]}. In our opinion, stolpism brought new aspects to asceticism that distinguished this type of practice from all others that existed before it and in many ways after. The main thing here is the public form of practice. These words mean, first of all, the actual presence of the stylite in close and continuous interaction with society, which gave rise to important changes in people's lives ^{[3, p.12-17]}.  The lack of isolation and the possibility of direct communication between the stylite and the common man, as well as the publicity of the practice, led to the huge popularity of the stylites and a tremendous increase in their authority. Society, as a result of such interaction, rallied around them.  The population needed leaders capable of governing, so they entrusted these powers to the stylites, considering them the owners of all the necessary qualities for this.

The study of the Stylites was originally associated with the translation and study of their lives. A huge contribution at this stage was made by members of the Bollandist society, who put a lot of effort into searching, translating and publishing the lives of many Christian ascetics ^{[1, P. 137]}. However, the Bollandists aimed mainly at the correct interpretation of various examples of miracles and feats described in the lives, in order to resist numerous critics. At a later stage, some breakthrough in the study of the interaction of society and saints was made by Norman Baines, who first introduced ideas about the possible social significance of ascetics ^{[4, P.45]}, Sebastian Brock, who showed changes in early Syrian asceticism, based on the principle of rapprochement of saints with society ^{[5, P.1-19]}, and Peter Brown, who provided a new model of the perception of holiness in the late Antique period, without which it is impossible to explain the phenomenon of stolpism ^{[6, p. 80]}. However, none of these authors singled out stolpnichestvo as an integral original phenomenon.

The place and role of stylites in the life of society is determined by the image they created in the public consciousness.  In this regard, the main approach in the study of stylites is to move away from the idea of stylites exclusively as "people living in the desert", and consider how they were perceived by society, and what caused this perception.

Stolpism originated and manifested itself to a greater extent in Syria ^{[7, p. 331]}. A typical Syrian trait of monastics and ascetics was a symbiosis with society ^{[8, P. 226]}. The reason for this lies primarily in the terrain and landscape. For example, Egyptian monks had to struggle with the desert for survival, since one person could exist in the desert only by constantly being in one place, cultivating a certain piece of land. While in Syria, rocky terrain with sparse vegetation prevailed. The Syrian desert has never been a harsh terrain for survival in fact. Precipitation, which took place here regularly, did not leave the ascetics without water, and the destroyed forts of the Romans always gave shelter. The living conditions here did not imply an exhausting struggle with nature for survival. Therefore, the Syrian desert was not an inaccessible place for travelers. There were many routes here, along which trade caravans followed ^{[7, p. 380]}. Thus, natural conditions did not pose an insurmountable barrier to the interaction of the population with ascetics.

 The population of the nearest villages and towns did not put obstacles to such interaction either. The structure of Syrian society has created the prerequisites for this interaction. The fifth and sixth centuries in Syria are marked by population growth and prosperity of the village ^{[9, P. 102]}. A new class of peasants or farmers, independent and prosperous, has emerged. The disintegration of the old society is revealed and the emergence of a new one, which becomes more adapted to survival ^{[6, P. 95]}. Simple and small farms prevailed here. An important place in the Syrian village was occupied by the figure of the patron, that is, the person who carried out patronage over the population. Turning to Theodoret of Cyrus and Libanius, we can find evidence of the existence of such patronage. Patronage over the village usually belonged to local landowners. The key quality in the patronage of the village was – , this is what the landowner could offer ^{[8, P. 123]}. It means that the patron can provide the village with external relations with the world, resolve a controversial issue within the village, as well as with neighboring villages, protect against raids, settle the issue of paying taxes. The patron could act not only as a "good" patron, but he could also become a destroyer. Libanius describes a good patron as a person who will take care of the settlement, fight for the abolition of taxes or debt cancellation, provide water supply, reconcile and resolve disputes, and generally solve the problems of the villagers. It is very difficult to find such a patron, such an ideal of a patron was almost inaccessible, due to the fact that none of the possible candidates was in a hurry to change big politics in the city and comfort to a backward village somewhere in the wilderness. Therefore, quite often the military, who had a garrison near the village, became such patrons. Libanius describes patrons as usurpers, but in fact, for them patronage was an opportunity to get land ownership. Patronage was necessary to solve the problems of the settlement, while patronage was an opportunity for patrons to cash in on this position. An interesting example can be seen in Theodoret of Kirsky in his Church History about how the patron - Abraham the hermit was chosen. Hiding that he was a monk, Abraham came to a pagan village under the guise of a merchant, in order to allegedly buy nuts, and settled in one of the houses. For a while he did not manifest himself in any way and did not communicate with anyone, but one day he began to sing psalms in his house. Hearing this, the villagers filled up the entrance to his dwelling and the house itself with stones. After they saw that nothing could make Abraham stop doing this, they dismantled the rubble. It is worth noting that it was a village of both ordinary peasants and well-to-do. After the tax collectors came to the village and began to demand payment of debts, Abraham stood up for the residents. He managed to become a guarantor by promising to give a hundred gold pieces to pay off debts. Abraham managed to find money for the village through acquaintances in the city, and pay off the tax collectors. For this, the residents immediately elected him as a patron, to which he agreed on condition that a church was established in the village ^{[10, P. 420]}. From this we can conclude that patronage was not a one-sided relationship in favor of the patron, rather on the contrary, the village skillfully maneuvered between competing patrons in its favor. The one who was most beneficial to the village in theory and became the patron. However, this was not always true for everyone, because the number of cartridges was limited and many of them were not distinguished by love for the population.   Already at the end of the fourth century, these relations became double-edged, the so-called hunt for cartridges took place ^{[5, p. 14]}. The fact is that the cartridges for the village served as a kind of connection with the outside world. The villagers needed to have this connection, to have a patron who could preserve the traditions of the village and at the same time include it in the life of the rest of the world. The patron was the element that was the link with the outside world, through which new knowledge and culture penetrated into the settlement. If this link disappeared, then a crisis began. Peter Brown calls the main crisis of the late Roman Empire precisely the departure of the patron from the village, and hence the fall of everything that would connect the village with the center.

An important function that the patron performed was the role of an arbitrator in resolving disputes. This was especially true of developing villages, in which there were wealthy peasants who simply needed to establish order. This was necessary for the normal productive development of the village itself, since due to constant disputes and disagreements, farmers could not come to a single decision on farming, which led to stagnation. They needed someone who would be an indisputable authority for everyone. In fact, the ideal cartridge is one in which no one could open his mouth ^{[6, P. 80]}. Such a person was like an engine for the development of the village.

Peter Brown in his famous work ^[6] perfectly showed how saints from the IV century began to take the place of patrons in the Roman village. The same thing is happening in Syria with the appearance of stylites. Stylite appears on time and shows a person who has the strength and will to become a "good" patron. To lend a helping hand to those who needed it. Theodoret of Kirsk describes in detail what the Stylites brought with them - a new force, or , and this is a tangible and supernatural force. Descriptions of the life of Stylites, this is a description of authority in action. The first stylite, at the beginning of the fifth century, became Saint Simeon. Theodoret of Kirsky shows him as a patron not only for the nearest settlement, but also for the highest officials of neighboring states and not only: Persian princesses, sheikhs, Yemenis, many merchants, go to Simeon in a continuous stream to solve their problems ^{[11, P. 268-270]}. Feodorita just doesn't care about the queue of ordinary people that flows to Simeon in an endless stream. Peter Brown compares Simeon to a lion, and his words are the roar of a lion, trying to show how strong Simeon's influence was. The level of issues that Simeon could solve was colossal by the standards of his contemporaries. He acted as an arbitrator, dealt with court cases, settled the issue of the amount of taxes collected, he resolved disputes between landowners about the amount of harvest ^{[11, P. 269]}. The size of Simeon was unattainable for an ordinary person. Simeon, with one word, could cancel the payment of taxes to an entire village or divide its borders. His power had no analogues and did not fit the description or comparison with anyone ^{[12, P. 180]}. His importance was so great that people obeyed him implicitly. He was like a lion, and the people in front of him were like foxes who hide in their holes at the sound of his roar ^{[12, P. 173, 176]}. Simeon Stylites was the ideal patron of the early Byzantine world.

Stylite, as a clear example of the ideal of Christian life, in the view of society has several key properties that allow him to carry out the activities necessary for people. One of such qualities for the population is the ability of a stylite to perform a miracle. Peter Brown points to the stories of miracles as an opportunity for ordinary people to perceive the possibilities of saints. The miracle for the villagers was a necessary symbol that made the saint the possessor of power over ordinary people, just as the images on the coins reflected the symbols of the superiority of the power of the emperors. The story of the miraculous is a key quality for the owner of . A miracle is the personification of for a simple villager. Peter Brown identifies two types of miracles that reflect the supernatural power of ascetics over people – cursing and exorcism ^{[6, P. 87]}. So we can note that Syrian ascetics are often distinguished by such plots. In the History of the God-lovers of Theodoret of Kirsky, we can see the story of Jacob from Nisibis, who punished young girls for their shameless behavior through a curse, and the villagers asked Jacob to correct their situation ^{[11, P. 239-254]}. It should be noted here that a curse is equal to a curse from God, that is, God punishes anyone whom the saint points out. We can find exactly the same behavior in Simeon Stylites, who through curses regulated the behavior of many people, groups of people and entire nationalities.

An even more complicated relationship with society reflected the exorcism or exorcism. The ascetic, in this case, acts as having power in opposition to the possessed. The possessed and the stylite are two opposing sides, one of which means "worldly" and the other "divine". The simple life and piety of a stylite is contrasted with everything unnatural and worldly in the eyes of a simple person in a possessed person. The stylite and the possessed couple is a symbol of the power of one over the other. With his life, the stylite, as a representative of holiness, conquers the world and expels all the misfortunes that have befallen a person. Exorcism acutely raises the issue of violence in Roman society. Violence represented everything demonic. In this regard, Stylite acted as a tamer of the demonic, and, consequently, a tamer of aggression. Stylite is a man who was necessary for Roman society, because he was the one who was able to tame the aggressiveness in him and give him the opportunity to overcome the problems that arose in connection with the manifestation of violence. The possessed has a social significance, expressed in aggression, through which the possessed are not subject to the laws, from which this society suffers greatly, but does not have the opportunity to overcome this injustice against itself. At the same time, the stylite acts as a patron of society capable of returning the possessed to the mainstream of public life.

Another important quality that shapes public attitudes and enables stylites to directly influence people is the image of a stranger. It can be noted that most of the issues that Stolpnik solved were extremely unpopular among the people. These were controversial issues, making decisions on which it was impossible not to infringe on any of the parties. A difficult question seems to be the reasons for choosing an ascetic hermit for this role. The answer to this question lies in the perception of the hermit by a simple person who lived in Syria at that time. A simple villager comes to the pillar of Simeon and asks if the pillar is a man ^{[11, P. 274]}? And the answer is obvious that Simeon was not a man in the mind of the layman. Stylite is a third party, an independent and unbiased observer who does not interfere in all the complex vicissitudes of society. He was not interested in helping any of the parties in whose disputes he acted. The life of the stylite was accompanied by unbearable feats for an ordinary person, ascetic practices that pull the stylite out of public life. To put it simply, a stylite is a person who performs a certain ritual of becoming an image of a stranger in the eyes of the public. The difference between the stylite and other religious or occult personalities is that the stylite draws his powers from the outside, not from social or human substances. Stylite has nothing human, he is rather equated with non-human, having no similarity with anything that people had, especially since he had no common goals with any of the people, and therefore his asceticism led him to the status of a heavenly inhabitant. A "stranger" could control society because no one in society trusted each other. Stylite Daniel, for example, had the opportunity to solve not only settlement problems, but he reached the level of the entire empire, having incredible authority. Daniel tried on warring factions, acted as an international arbitrator, and during the Basilisk crisis proved himself to be an unsurpassed authority ^{[13, P. 83]}.

Stylite, as a holy man, became the personification of objectivity in society. This happened during a long period from oracles and seers in the pagan world up to holiness in the Christian world.  This shows the revolution in religion in the era of Late Antiquity. The difference between the former oracle and the new saint was the difference in personality. The saint, as an image of a "stranger", had an intact personality in himself and decided and conducted all the rites himself, while the oracle represented a bearer who did not have a personality. The Oracle was something demonic, distant and incomprehensible, something that was not objective. Stylite appeared to be the most objective, as he performed the feat in front of everyone. It was not a simple cult rite, but embodied self-determination, clearly shown to everyone around. The objectivity of the stylite was deserved, it was a privilege that was obtained by the power shown by the ascetic. For people, the stylite was the one who spoke to God – . The new Roman society received tangible evidence of the objectivity of the stylite – hard work, sweat, blood, pain, through which the stylite defeated the world and everything mundane that could give people a thought about the bias of the stylite. Stylite was able to attract the attention of villages, cities, entire nations, while remaining a "stranger" or the personification of objectivity.

The ascetic's presence in a prominent place accessible to any viewer leads to the fact that the stylite replaces the ritual life of society. The provinces differed from the center in their everyday, ceremonial life and entertainment. One of the main sights for a person was the theater. The theater was the source of the style of public life for the provinces. Therefore, Peter Brown suggests that much of the early Church can be identified with Roman ideas. In this context, the saint was equal to an athlete or gladiator. In the same way, a stylite overcomes trials through difficulties and victories, as well as an athlete, and thereby deserves the respect of the public ^{[6, P. 94]}.

The place and role of the stylite in society can be determined only in direct connection with the state of the society in which the stylites existed. Stylite was the personification of the holy man of Late Antiquity. Having connected Stylite with the trend of the epoch, we understand the meaning that Stylite brought to the world. Stylite appeared in a world gripped by crisis. The crisis of freedom of action suddenly collapsed on people ^{[6, P. 99]}.  Society, overcoming the crisis of excess freedom, found a way out in the stylites, who helped him deal with the collapsed problems. The village saw the stylite as a patron saint, city residents saw the stylite as an "objective stranger", countless crowds of parishioners saw in the stylite confidence in the turmoil of events taking place in the world and the contradictory traditions of different peoples. Stylites became leaders of public relations, due to the crisis of leadership in society. Society is moving away from the prophets, who have completely surrendered to the supernatural property of their authority. It was no longer possible to have authority only because of the status assigned earlier in the spiritual world. Stylite also earned his exceptional role and incredible authority due to the fact that Roman society was patriarchal. The ancestor played a great role for the Romans, although he remained a distant figure. But the teacher was the one who was closest to an educated Roman, he was even closer to his father. In fact, a teacher is someone who recruited a person for his ideas, and passed them on through his student. It was the stylites who became teachers for the educated nobility of Roman society. For the average person, the holy stylite surpassed the oracle, because he was more objective and honest, and adapted to a changing society than the oracle. Stylite surpassed not only the oracle, but also the traditions of society that were before him. He replaced the amulet, the conspiracy, the folk wisdom of the villages. His word saved people from all problems. Stylite surpassed the tradition of female mysticism that prevailed in pagan cults and exalted a man over a woman as such. The holy man and the holy stylite revealed not only a new way of life in the village, but also the death of the pagan world. The rise of the stylite and his role showed the formation of a new stage in religious history. The blurring of pagan institutions, the passing into the past of large temple complexes, that's what Stylites represented as the personification of the saint in the minds of people. Stylite gave people a new understanding of themselves, a new understanding of society, a new understanding of the collective.

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