STYLITE
\stˈa͡ɪla͡ɪt], \stˈaɪlaɪt], \s_t_ˈaɪ_l_aɪ_t]\
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In eccles. hist. a pillar-saint: one of those ascetics who, by way of penance, passed the greater part of their lives on the top of high columns or pillars. This mode of self-torture was practiced among the monks of the East from the fifth to the twelfth century. Perhaps the most celebrated was St. Simeon the Stylite, who lived in the fifth century, and is the subject of one of Tennyson's shorter poems.
By Daniel Lyons
