Saint Syméon, lieu de pèlerinage.

Abstract

The Monastery of Saint Symeon, site of pilgrimage. 
Symeon the Stylite the Elder (before 390-459) is the founder of a peculiar way of asceticism. He established himself in the Limestone Massif of Syria at Telanissos, on a hill. He erected four successive columns. He became famous and toward 470, a huge pilgrimage place was built including a cruciform martyrium, a monastery attached to it, a baptistery, rows of cells and secondary churches. In the village, connected by a sacred way with the pilgrimage centre, were built reception buildings and shops, a bath, inns, a church and four monasteries. Clay eulogies, some jewellery and medals were sold to the pilgrims. Attacked in 636 by an Arabian army, it was reoccupied in 979 until 1017 by Byzantine troops who fortified the pilgrimage place. Monks may have left the site in the XIIth century.