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Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius's Life and the Late Antique City (Transformation of the Classical Heritage) [Hardcover]

Derek Krueger
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

8 Feb 1996 0520089111 978-0520089112
This study of Leontius of Neapolis fleshes out a broad picture of the religious, intellectual and social environment in which the "Life of Symeon the Fool" was created and opens a window onto the Christian religious imagination at the end of late antiquity. The book explores the concept of holy folly by relating Symeon's life to the gospels, to earlier hagiography and to anecdotes about Diogenes the Cynic.

Product details

  • Hardcover: 212 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press (8 Feb 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520089111
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520089112
  • Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.3 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,144,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

About the Author

Derek Krueger is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Nut Case...Love this guy. 26 April 2013
Format:Hardcover
Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius's Life and the Late Antique City (Transformation of the Classical)

Just reading and learning about this odd fellow, St. Simeon of Emesa, Holy Fool. Would love to get a copy of The Real Deal book here, out of print for two decades. Just reading around this book and now I find some help on Google Books, a collection of out of print works.

In the mean time, until I can get a hard copy of this work, a good place for me to look for thoughts on St. Simeon of Emesa and other Holy Fools of the Eastern Church would be places like Bp. Kallistos Ware and his The Inner Kingdom: Volume 1 of the Collected Works by Kallistos Ware (Aug 1, 2000) or the book Abba, a collection of articles done recently in Bp. Ware's honor and for his 30 plus years of service at Oxford teaching about the Eastern Church and old rusty concepts and people like St. Symeon of Emesa.

So, look to those two works with a chapter each on Holy Fools. Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West (Festschrift for Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia) by Andrew Louth, Dimitri E. Conomos, Kallistos Ware and John Behr (Feb 6, 2003). In Abba you'll find an article ("What kind of fool am I?") by Peter C. Bouteneff, a student of Ware's, who speaks about St. Simeon of Emesa and other great and holy fools. And Ware's Inner Kingdom.

In Bp. Wares work in Inner Kingdom you'll get to know what it is like to be the intellectual pope of the Eastern Church, a bishop a monk/priest a professor, an old guy, and at the same time a "student of fools". Got to like that. I consider myself such. And I love that Kallistos guy.

In the tale of St. Simeon I love the part where after praying and living the ascetic life for 29 years in the desert near the Dead Sea, this holy man Symeon tries to talk his friend and fellow monk, St. John of Edessa, to join him in his new mission. The Simeon plan received in a vision is to leave the quiet of the desert and a tough but rather vanilla ascetic life of prayer and go to the bustle and hustle of the city. Why? To "mock the world" of course. And so he let his freak flag fly in this way and made way to the urban landscape. Crossing the threshold of the town at the gate he did so while dragging the carcass of a dead dog behind him; thus performance art was born. The next day, being holy, he of course went off to church. But he went to church to:

a) pinch out some candles, extinguishing the flame
b) throw nuts at the back of the heads of some ladies
c) tip over the pastry tables in the corner of the church on his way out.

Hmmm. Not going to go down well with the Greek ladies in the kitchen who do all that baking for festival I'd say.

And yet St. Symeon did ordinary saint type things, too: fed the poor and healed the blind. But this particular healing he did with perhaps the non standard church tool of a cooked sausage necklace tossed over his shoulder like a cleric's stole and with a pot of mustard on his fool's belt as he munched on all this during Lent no doubt. Yes, he applied mustard via sausage to an almost blind man's eyes, making his eyes burn with pain until the cripple ran to a real doctor who knew what he was doing. And then went totally. Only later did he come to his senses and return to the Fool who would heal him and return his sight.

The author Derek Krueger here takes us on an absurd rail ride with a 7th century church nut case man who according to the record of Leontius, "...walked about naked, ate enormous quantities of beans, and defecated in the streets." Something oddly wonderful here to me about a man not worried at all about what people might think of him. But this was part of his game, not to appear holy or take credit for holiness. Who doesn't wish they could see more of this in church life today?

This Old World man man wasn't only an odd fellow but he cared about odd folks and the poor and the blind. Yet he'd to go to uptown parties of well to do folk just to goof with them and mock their riches. Got to love this odd chap who very much wanted zero credit for any good deed that might be laid at his feet. It was not for him to be found in a pretty black cassock dangling a prayer rope on his wrist in the local supermarket.

Love the wood cut on the cover of this book of St. Symeon dragging his dead dog, making his grand entrance into Edessa that first day. The painted icons of this Saint I've been able to find put him with two other church saints who share his day on the commemoration calender; all three are imaged dressed up church pretty of course. How dumb is that. I find more honest the icon on the cover of Krueger's work, the wood cut of the saint dragging his famous dung hill dog, dead as a dog can be.

St. Simeon the Holy Fool was buried when his day was done in a graveyard set aside out of town for the indigent and homeless; where losers go when nobody cares. Yet he is dear to me in that I was blessed last year to visit Mar Saba there at the edge of the Holy Land, where this blessed odd one was tonsured as a monk in those early centuries. Love to think his scull is among those in one of those glass cases.

God indeed loves misfits I think. And, like the modern fool, Crazy John (love that book), some are just better at the misfit thing than others; because they find the secret of being holy in their oddity and not looking pretty about it. So, there's hope for me I guess. By your prayers, St. Simeon. By your prayers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.5 out of 5 stars  2 reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Just reading and learning about this odd fellow 24 April 2013
By Dan E. Nicholas - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Just reading and learning about this odd fellow, St. Simeon of Emesa, Holy Fool. Would love to get a copy of The Real Deal book here, out of print for some time.

In the mean time, a good place to look for thoughts on St. Simeon of Emesa and other the Holy Fools of the Eastern Church would be Bp. Kallistos Ware and his The Inner Kingdom: Volume 1 of the Collected Works by Kallistos Ware (Aug 1, 2000) or Abba, a collection of articles done recently in Bp. Ware's honor and for his 30 plus years of service at Oxford teaching about the Eastern Church. So, look to those two works with a chapter each on Holy Fools. Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West (Festschrift for Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia) by Andrew Louth, Dimitri E. Conomos, Kallistos Ware and John Behr (Feb 6, 2003). In Abba you'll find an article by a student of Ware's on St. Simeon of Emesa and other great and holy fools. In Bp. Wares work you'll get to know what it is like to be the intellectual pope of the Eastern Church, a bishop a monk/priest a professor and at the same time a "student of fools". Got to like that.

In the mean time, if you're reading this and would like to send me a copy of this book if you have one? I'll make you famous with the fools of heaven with my prayers. Until then, I'll just read various clips online or the text on Google books, a trove out out of print books. This one is a couple decades old.

In the tale of St. Simeon I love the part where after praying and living the ascetic life for 29 years in the desert near the Dead Sea, this holy man tries to talk his friend and fellow monk, St. John of Edessa, to join him in his new mission. The Simeon plan received in a vision is to leave the quiet of the desert and a life of prayer to go to the bustle and hustle of town in order to "mock the world". And so he let his freak flag fly in this way and made way to the city. Crossing the threshold of the town gate he did so while dragging the carcass dead dog on a rope behind him; thus performance art was surly born. The next day, being holy, he of course went to church. But he went to church to:

a) pinch out some candles, extinguishing the flame
b) throw nuts at the back of the heads of some ladies
c) tip over the pastry tables at the back of church on his way out.

Hmmm. Not going to go down well with the Greek ladies in the kitchen who do all that baking for festival.

And yet he did ordinary saint type things: fed the poor and healed the blind. But this healing he did with the standard church tool of a cooked sausage tossed over his shoulder like a cleric's stole and with a pot of mustard on his belt as he munched on perhaps during Lent. Yes, he applied mustard via said sausage dog to an almost blind man, making his eyes burn with pain until he ran to a real doc and went totally. Only later to see him come back to the fool who healed him, returning his sight.

The author Derek Krueger takes us on an absurd rail ride with a man who according to the record of Leontius, "...walked about naked, ate enormous quantities of beans, and defecated in the streets." Something oddly wonderful here to me about a man not worried at all about what people might think of him. But this was part of his game, not to appear holy or take credit. Who doesn't wish they could see more of this in church life?

This 7th century man man wasn't only an odd fellow but he cared about odd folks and the poor and the blind. Yet he'd love to go to uptown parties and mock the rich. Got to love this odd chap who very much wanted zero credit for any good deed that might be laid at his feet; or to be found in a pretty black cassock dangling a prayer rope on his wrist in the supermarket.

Love the wood cut of him dragging his dead dog, making his grand entrance into Edessa that first day. Most painted icons you see today of this saint put him with two other fellows who share his day on the commemoration calender; all three dressed up church pretty of course. How dumb is that. I like the one on the cover of Krueger's work, the wood cut of the saint dragging his famous dung hill dog, dead as can be.

St. Simeon the Holy Fool was buried when his day was done in a graveyard set aside out of town for the indigent and homeless; where losers go when nobody cares. Yet he is dear to me in that I was blessed last year to visit Mar Saba their at the edge of the Holy Land, where this blessed odd one was tonsured as a monk in those early centuries.

God indeed loves the the misfits and some are just better at it than others because they find the secret of being holy in their oddity. So, there's hope for me. By your prayers, St. Simeon. By your prayers.
8 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars great inspiration for a new Christianity 23 Feb 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This book about the wise-fool saint Symeon was so inspirational to me that I've made a deeply personal vow to religiously observe July 21st by spreading all manner of golden chaos and absurdem as possibly befits and behoves me and my oceanic cult --Ark Spurting Blood; which observes the Dominator shipwreck as a religieous object cast out from the oceans stomach and which we consider to be possibly a great transporter of and for the flesh,and blood, and spirit of Saint Symeon when he arrived on the West coast (after ascension) to convert the Chumash natives-- who in return converted him to the Jimson weed Burning Wheel. A fine book ; that will truely bring forth the real inspiration of what Christ in his swarm wisdom was trying to get across to the ignorant hordes and disciples-- who in little moderation, got mislead through their lack of insight and veneration for truths outside their fears of insects and animals.
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