St. Daniel the Stylite

Daniel was a Syrian by birth and a monk from boyhood. He went to see Symeon the Stylite, who was then living on his pillar in the Syrian hills, and the visit settled the shape of the rest of his life.

He established himself near Constantinople and took to a pillar of his own, within reach of the capital rather than in the desert. That nearness is what distinguishes him: the pillar stood where the business of the empire passed by it, and he was visited on it by both the Emperor Leo and the Emperor Zeno, who came for his counsel and his prayers.

He is said to have kept the pillar for more than thirty years and to have come down from it only once, in a crisis of the city's affairs. He died about the year 493, and his memory is kept on the eleventh of December.