Symeon the Pious

Symeon the Pious (Symeon the Studite, Symeon Eulabes, sometimes Symeon the Elder) was an influential lay monk of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople in the tenth century, and the spiritual father, that is, teacher, of Saint Symeon the New Theologian. Our sources do not show that he was canonized or that he has a fixed day of commemoration.

Little is known of his life. He was born around 918 (one source gives 917) and became a monk at the Stoudios monastery in 942; for this reason he is called the Studite. He died in 986 or 987. Forty chapters in the book Patmiacus 427, all concerning the spiritual life, are attributed to him as Symeon the Pious (Eulabes in Greek). His writings show a practical way of understanding the spiritual life, while other writings of that time portrayed him as a fool for Christ.

Symeon the New Theologian revered him as a saint, which drew the rebuke of some church leaders, who felt that the younger Symeon was honouring someone whom they considered less than saintly. For this reason his holiness was regarded with reserve even in his own time.