From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 11th - St. Daniel the Stylite, Visionary   
      
   St. Daniel the Stylite lived most of his life in Constantinople standing   
   atop a column, in accordance with a divine message he received when he was   
   young. His biographer never gives us exact dates for his life, but because   
   we know he lived during Emperor Leo's reign and, after Leo's death, on into   
   the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, we can place St. Daniel securely in the   
   fifth century. His biographer tells us he died at age eighty-four, terminus   
   post quem 491, the year Anastasius became emperor.   
      
   Daniel was an ascetic, a monk dedicated to giving up all worldly comforts in   
   favor of strict bodily discipline and a life of prayer and devotion to God.   
   By the fifth century, asceticism was quite common and practiced in many   
   forms, having been started by St. Anthony, "the first monk," in the third   
   century. St. Daniel's particular kind of asceticism, however, was newer: he   
   modeled his life after the widely revered St. Simeon (389-459), the first   
   stylite saint. "Stylite" comes from the Greek word for column-stylos-and   
   refers to one who spends his life standing on top of a column, never   
   descending or, in some cases, even sitting down. Simeon spent his last 36   
   years on his column in Syria, attracting an enormous cult following. After   
   he died a basilica, baptistery, and other church buildings were constructed   
   around the site and other saints all over the empire took to living on   
   columns as well. Our St. Daniel spent 33 years standing on several columns   
   in Constantinople; hence his epithet, St. Daniel "the Stylite."   
      
   At the end of St. Daniel's vita, his biographer summarizes the main points   
   of St. Daniel's life: he left his parents at age 12 to join a monastery near   
   his village in Mesopotamia, where he stayed for 25 years. For five years   
   after leaving the monastery, Daniel studied with various teachers, and at   
   age 42 he finally went to Constantinople, as we have said, under God's   
   guidance. He lived on columns for the rest of his life-three of them,   
   actually, one after the other in roughly the same location. Far from being   
   isolated from the world like some ascetic monks, Daniel became a very   
   influential man up on top of his column. Because of his perceived piety, his   
   ability to prophesy, and his miracles of healing and demon-casting, he   
   collected enormous numbers of pilgrims and disciples, many of who settled   
   permanently around the base of his column. He also commanded the respect of   
   all the area's bishops and archbishops, and became a close advisor to the   
   emperors, especially Leo. Daniel's biographer relates stories about Daniel's   
   acts in each of these roles, and the stories tell us quite a lot about   
   Byzantine society in the fifth century-its images, politics, and world view.   
      
   For the thirty three years that Daniel stood on his column, his biography   
   consists mainly of stories about two things: the miracles he achieved for   
   his pilgrims and disciples, and the ways he helped out the emperor in   
   various political crises. This is interesting because while we might expect   
   that saints' jobs involved performing miracles, it seems surprising that a   
   religious man such as Daniel would play such a prominent political role in   
   advising the emperor. But he does. The emperors seek Daniel's prayers and   
   prophesy on everything from the great fire in Constantinople in 465, to how   
   to best deal with Germanic invaders, to who should lead the armies . Those   
   are just the big issues, too. Countless times the emperors ask Daniel's   
   advice on everyday issues like how to deal with dissenters (one example of   
   many).   
      
   Of course, Daniel may have been an especially favored friend of Emperor Leo   
   and been asked so much advice simply for that reason; there were after all,   
   many more monks and priests in Constantinople than just Daniel. But the fact   
   that Daniel figures into the emperor's political decisions so frequently   
   does demonstrate the particular, theocratic, kind of state Byzantium was.   
      
   The vita of St. Daniel helps us understand the role of the church in   
   non-imperial aspects of early Byzantine life, as well. Another kind of story   
   the biography often relates is about the divine visions of Daniel. He has   
   visions at all the important stages of his life, from when he decides to go   
   to Constantinople), to when he brings St. Simeon's relics to the capital, to   
   when he descends from his pillar to help save the orthodox church from   
   heresy. Everyone from the emperor to Daniel's pilgrims has great faith in   
   these visions: they interpret them and base their decisions on them, giving   
   us a picture of a society when God was everywhere, so close at hand that he   
   communicated directly with the people through the visions of his saints.   
      
   Yet for all that, the Church itself, as an institution, wasn't as   
   unquestionably established as we might think, as evidenced by Daniel's many   
   detractors and his need to convert them to the orthodox religion. He must   
   convert many disbelievers--Bastiane, a prostitute; Jordanes, an Arian   
   heretic; a heckler in the crowd, to name a few. The Church was threatened by   
   more dangerous enemies as well--heresies like Arianism and Monophysitism   
   that Daniel was compelled to come off his pillar to refute.   
      
   But probably the most valuable thing art historians gain from text sources   
   like the saints' vitae is evidence of the kinds of art works a period   
   created. These texts are especially important for periods like St. Daniel's   
   fifth century, from which not many works survive. Luckily, most vitae   
   mention images. St. Daniel's biography is, by definition, a history of his   
   life, not a history of art works, but we can still glean little bits of art   
   information from what's there. We hear little anecdotes which let us infer   
   what kinds of works were being constructed in Constantinople at the time,   
   such as the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and the attached emperor's   
   palace, and even the columns for Daniel himself, some of which had honorary   
   inscriptions engraved on their bases, recalling the columns of the emperors.   
      
   We also read about specific art works. Near the beginning of the biography,   
   we hear of someone who has painted a portrait of St. Daniel over the doorway   
   of a church he inhabited. Daniel is displeased with the portrait, thinking   
   it glorifies himself too much, so he has it taken down, perhaps prefiguring   
   iconoclastic beliefs a few centuries later. At the end of the biography,   
   Daniel rejects another art object meant to glorify him, an elaborate tomb of   
   precious stone and metal-work. Later in the biography, however, we hear of   
   "a silver icon, ten pounds in weight, on which was represented the holy man   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)