St Simeon climbed his pillar in AD412 to get away from the hordes of disciples and onlookers who came to visit him, having heard reports of his already extreme self-denying lifestyle. He once survived Lent without eating or drinking anything, and followed this achievement up by standing stock still until he collapsed.

He spent the rest of his life on a succession of ever higher pillars, to get away from the crowds who continued to visit him, with supplies delivered by village boys climbing up to the top.

After he died, his fame spread and he spawned scores of imitators, known as Stylites from the Greek word for pillar, “style”.

The monastery, north-west of Aleppo, has been a tourist attraction for centuries, and has come under the control of different groups in the civil war, including the Free Syrian Army, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), the Kurdish YPG and most recently the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham.