Definition of stylite in English:

noun

• An ascetic living on top of a pillar, especially in ancient or medieval Syria, Turkey, and Greece in the 5th century AD.

  More example sentences

  • ‘Watching him, I can't help but think of the stylites, fanatical Christian monks of the Middle Ages who would plant themselves atop columns in the desert and stay there for weeks and months.’
  • ‘It represents St. Simeon the stylite atop his pillar with details of his bare ribs and naked body showing.’
  • ‘But within ten months he was permitted to set out for the Holy Land, with the blessing of a nearby stylite.’
  • ‘Known as a stylite, or one who lives on a pillar, he virtually impaled himself physically for a lifetime but thereby gained spiritual eternity.’
  • ‘Simeon, like many of the stylites, was completely orthodox in his theology.’

  Synonyms

  abstainer, recluse, hermit, solitary, anchorite, anchoress, desert saint, celibate, puritan, nun, monk