Symeon Stylites of Lesbos

Symeon Stylites of Lesbos, also called Symeon the New Stylite and Symeon the Confessor of Mytilene, was a ninth-century monk and stylite of the island of Lesbos who suffered for the veneration of the holy icons during the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. By tradition he was born about 765 or 766 in Mytilene, one of the children of Adrianos and Konstanto, a family of which several members embraced the monastic life. He is venerated together with his two brothers, David the Monk and George, who became Bishop of Mytilene.

Following the ascetic pattern of the earlier Symeon the Stylite, he took up the rare and severe discipline of the pillar-dweller. The sources relate that he climbed a pillar-like tower and there confined himself, devoting his life to fasting, prayer, and study; the title "Stylite" derives from the Greek word for pillar or column. According to the synaxarion he loaded himself with chains and lived in extraordinary asceticism atop his pillar near Mytilene.

His confession of the faith fell during the renewed persecution of the icons under the iconoclast emperors of the ninth century. The tradition relates that he was condemned to be burned while still on his pillar but was preserved, and that he endured repeated exile to various islands. With the restoration of the veneration of icons about 843, he was recalled; the sources connect him in his later years with the imperial court of the Empress Theodora, under whom the icons were restored. He reposed in 844.