Just to be clear, today's saints were not named after the two members of the Lent Madness Supreme Executive Committee. I mean, how would you even distinguish which one was which? But we return to the ever-popular Confusion Corner quadrant of the bracket as Isidora the Simple takes on Simeon the Holy Fool, two unconventional saints who have much to teach us about what really matters in this life.
Yesterday, Dunstan swept past Maryam of Qidun 68% to 32% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen. But enough of this. Go vote!
Isidora the Simple
Little is known of Isidora the Simple, a fourth-century nun. There are no biographical records of her, so her age and place of birth remain a mystery. But we know some details about her life in the Tabenna Monastery, the first religious house for women in Egypt.
At the monastery, she sought out the most strenuous and dirtiest of physical labor. She was nicknamed “the sponge” because of her willingness to do filthy tasks. She was considered mentally deficient by the other nuns, who ostracized and sometimes beat her. Hagiographers describe Isidora as a fool for Christ, not someone with a mental disability but someone who humbled herself to embody the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:18, “Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.”
As part of her spiritual practice of humility and rejection of worldly rewards, Isidora did not dine with the other nuns. Legend says she was never seen eating or drinking but subsisted entirely on the crumbs of the other sisters’ plates and the water she used to wash the dishes. Isidora wore a dishrag on her head rather than the nun’s cowl the other sisters donned. Although she was mistreated by her fellow nuns, she never retaliated or complained.
The story of Isidora reveals her manner of devotion to be a willing self-humiliation. A very old desert hermit named Saint Piteroum had a vision that rather than being proud of his own sacrifices and devotion, he should go to Tabenna and meet a truly religious woman. In a scene that echoes Samuel’s search for David, he met every woman in the monastery, and none wore the crown he’d been told to look for. He asked if there was another woman remaining, and so they brought out Isidora from the kitchen. Piteroum recognized the dishrag on her head as the crown he’d been told to seek and fell on his knees asking for her blessing. When the sisters realized she was not a fool but a devout spiritual leader, they repented and began to revere her. Isidora could no longer live humbly in the peaceful isolation of work and prayer, so she fled into the desert to live out her life as an anchoress.
Isidora’s life is a reminder that service to others and true humility are the paths to intimacy with God. Her feast day is May 1.
Collect for Isidora the Simple
O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that, inspired by the devotion of your servant Isidora, we may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Simeon the Holy Fool
Have you ever been a fool for Christ? Done anything stupid? Then you, too, are like Simeon. Holy fools have been known throughout time as those whose actions and words disrupt the status quo. Saint Paul declared himself a “fool for Christ.” These “fools” often focus more on the teachings of Jesus than the social, political, or traditional construct of the time.
Saint Simeon (or Symeon) of Salus, is known as the Holy Fool. Born in the sixth century in Edessa, Simeon was a Christian monk who entered the monastic life at age twenty at the Abba Gerasimus Monastery in Syria near the Dead Sea. Simeon spent the next twenty-nine years developing his spirituality and a desire to serve others. Through his prayer, he found he was called by God to move to the town of Emesa and serve others in ways where he would not be thanked. He asked God to provide him a way to serve his fellow man and not be concerned with conventional mores.
Simeon developed a reputation as a madman, whereby he would turn over tables, throw food, and extinguish the lights in the church to gain people’s attention. Sometimes he was found to be jumping around, sometimes limping, and sometimes scooting around on his backside. His goal was to flout societal conventions of what was “normal.” He was taunted, jeered, and teased by this town, but his reputation grew as people saw his other actions of feeding the poor, tending the sick, and admonishing the sinner and calling them to repentance. He was a known healer and devout preacher of the gospel, one who cared deeply for the homeless and hungry. Many came to Christ through the care of Simeon in spite of, or perhaps because of, the craziness of his ministry. Simeon was a dichotomy. He would gladly flout society’s conventions to bring attention to the spiritual works of mercy and grace.
Simeon’s life calls us to do crazy things in the name of God, where our actions to others speak more loudly than craziness and the goodness of charity and love far outweigh foolish antics. If there were an epitaph of Simeon’s life, it would be, “He was crazy, but he was kind and served God.” Would your epitaph say something similar?
Saint Simeon’s feast day is July 1, which is also known as Fools for Christ Day. He is the patron saint of ventriloquists and puppeteers and fools in general.
Collect for Simeon the Holy Fool
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints and who raised up your servant Simeon to be a light in the world: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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210 comments on “Isidora the Simple vs. Simeon the Holy Fool”
Anyone else getting Cinderella vibes from Isidora's story?
I'm voting for Isadora because that story has made me reflect on people that I look down on, if I'm honest, and all the times I have failed to see others' true worth. I'm thinking right now of grocery store clerks, the men and women (lots of women) who ring up our groceries so we can eat! Right now and for the past year during covid and for who know how long until we get this thing under control, the grocery store checkers -- a low paying job that requires a high school education or less -- have been there for all of us. This past year they've been my new heroes, and I've felt pretty ashamed at they ways in the past I've looked down on them.
I have read ALL the comments thus far (and it's almost 4:45pm so there are a lot of them) and here are my reflections:
- These stories have come down to us because something about these individuals truly moved people at the time. Something about these individuals struck folks deeply. But they are palimpsest, written all over, smudged, erased. They are also like a jewel or treasure, dug out of the past, caked in a lot of mud, maybe even excrement. But the jewel is still there -- or most likely still there -- even if others, in another time used that story for their own un-God-given purposes, like reinforcing a social order that degrades women. Stories are never simple.
- I empathize with everyone who is tired of women's oppression as seemingly upheld in many of these saints' lives. (I, too, was thinking of Patient Griselda). But many of these stories -- today's are from the 300s and tbe 500s -- aren't meant to be read literally. If they still hold meaning for us, it's as a story to reflect on.
- Last year, it was great to vote for Harriet Tubman, someone I can admire in all ways. That felt great!
- So I want to honor the exasperation that's been expressed today, which I take as a hunger for saints like Harriet Tubman that truly inspire us; while also encouraging a reflective reading of these lives that allows them to percolate on different levels.
How wise!
I always enjoy your thoughtful comments. Thank you.
Good comments. Thanks.
After much thought today I must give my vote to Isadora. My precious eldest sister was born "retarded" as a result of oxygen deprivation. She loved God and classical music. I recall her being subjected to terrible acts by other kids who enjoyed tormenting her because she was different.
Isidora was a saintly Cinderella. She had a lot of mean step sisters.
I love the story of Isidora -- patient, humble -- but I am voting for Simeon because he actively brought souls to Christ.
Ugh. What a contest! I think both of them had mental-health or development issues, but it sounds like Simeon's were more severe. I am going with him, because, to me, he more clearly exemplifies the ways in which all of us, even those who have several behavioral health or developmental challenges, can still serve God and the community. Isadora's m.o. seemed more like "simple," deliberate self-abasement with no other end in sight. I don't think that this sort of religiosity sets a dangerous example without serving God or our fellow humans very well.
I recommend reading Bishop Steven Charleston's 'The Four Vision Quests of Jesus' for more on holy fools. As a Native American Christian, he compares John the Baptist to the 'heyokha' or sacred clown of the Lakota people. It certainly gives a different perspective on these two saints!
Although I first was not going to include a comment, I have since decided to. My vote was for Simion as despite him being labeled a mad man and his own town jeering, bullying, and rejecting him, he did not care, but exercised his gift of care and concern for the sick, the homeless, and those that like himself, society shunned and rejected. Dispite how much others may have tried to push him out of his ministry to others, and opening their hearts to Christ, Simion ignored it and went on. This is to be admired in my opinion, especially with all the bullying and the being made to feel like he did not fit into the pre-conceived mold of what a "monastic should be like, look like, behave like, etc., etc., etc."
I also found it interesting to read that Simion was the patron Saint of Lent Madness! In also reading a little farther into reading about Simion on this page, I noticed that he is also the patron saint of Ventriloquists,which was interesting to read as well. Lastly, those who encorporate anything unorthodox in a positive, and fun way into their ministry as well as people who use humor for ministry, or Clown ministries are also sometimes called "Holy Fools.
Kudos to both celebrity bloggers today!
Well, I guess I'll throw my voice in after all. With both family members and friends on the mild end of the autism spectrum, I might guess that both Simeon and Isidora could have been on the deeper end of the spectrum, each in their own quirky ways -- Isidora very socially awkward and clueless about her own hygiene; Simeon dealing with his awkwardness by acting out, and perhaps self-comforting or stimulating by scooting around on his backside. But both nonetheless did get good and needful things done.
Not sure which to vote for, so I decided to vote for the one I'd rather have over for a dinner party. Izzie would be on the kitchen floor eating crumbs a la cat hair out of the dust pan, so no. Simeon would at least come to the table, so at the risk of a food fight or having to replace dishes or furniture, I voted for him for the entertainment value.
I think there’s a winner here. Ironically they would not want it.
Oops, on the comments on Simion, that should be "on reading a little farther down this page"- my appologies! I wanted to add as well that I was absolutely appalled at the treatment of both Isadora and Simion by their own cloisters, and monasteries as well as those within the town that Simion lived in! Also, when someone came along that finally treated Isadora as the worker, and servant for God that she was and the sisters also started treating her well- all of a sudden she could not stand all the attention, and positiveness she was getting and scrambled off to the desert. Such a picture of past abuse having damaged her so deeply she had a hard time with positive treatment Although the abuse by fellow nuns at the cloister had stopped, her damaged past was so deeply set in it had colored her ability to distinguish that the abusiveness by other nuns was not normal, and instead, she went running to a life in the desert in solitary where although she could now concentrate on serving God, she also was heading off to an even worse quality of life. A solitary life in the desert would not have helped her mental state as well at all.
A tough decision, between Isadora and Symeon. (Should we go with most authentic spellings of saints' names, or the most modernized?)
Isadora was more thoroughly humble, thereby more to the virtue of humility.
Symeon brought more attention to the divine behaviour.
Due to our current culture, we need to bring more attention to behaviour which exhibits the World to Come, simply put, Love thy neighbor. Thereby Symeon gets my vote by a nose. (A big, red bulbous one?) 😉