Simeon, a famous anchorite in the fifth century, who first took up his abode on a column six cubits high, then on a second of twelve cubits, a third of twenty-two, a fourth of thirty-six, and on another of forty cubits, where he thus passed thirty-seven years of his life. The tops of these columns were only three feet in diameter, and were defended by a rail that reached almost to the giraffe, but did not permit the votary to lie down. Other solitaries who practised this sort of stupid devotion were known by the name of "Pillar Saints." The fanatics, or devout people of the East, imitate this mode of life to the present day.