[stahy-lahyt] 
| one of a class of solitary ascetics who lived on the top of high pillars or columns. |
[stahy-lit-ik] , adjective | sty·lite (stī'līt') n. One of a number of early Christian ascetics who lived unsheltered on the tops of high pillars. [Late Greek stūlītēs, from Greek stūlos, pillar; see stā- in Indo-European roots.] sty·lit'ic (-lĭt'ĭk) adj., sty'lit·ism (stī'lī'tĭz-əm) n. |
stylite
a Christian ascetic who lived standing on top of a column (Greek: stylos) or pillar. The first to do this was St. Simeon Stylites (the Elder), who took up residence atop a column in Syria in AD 423. The best known among his imitators were his Syrian disciple St. Daniel (409-493) in Constantinople, St. Simeon Stylites the Younger (517-592) on Mount Admirable near Antioch, St. Alypius (7th century), near Adrianopolis, St. Luke (879-979) at Chalcedon, and St. Lazarus (968-1054) on Mount Galesion near Ephesus. Apart from these saints, of whom Greek biographies exist, various other stylites who lived in Greece and the Middle East were mentioned in ecclesiastical sources. John Moschus (died 619) mentions several in his Pratum spirituale, and references to female stylites have also been found
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