Martha, mother of Simeon Stylites the Younger

Saint Martha lived in the sixth century in Antioch, then a major city of Byzantine Syria. The principal source for her life is a Greek hagiographical Life composed in the later sixth century, together with material in the Life of her son, Simeon Stylites the Younger. These texts present her as a woman of a respectable Antiochene family who married John, a Christian originally from Edessa. After a period of childlessness the couple received a son, Simeon, born about 521. John died while the boy was still very young, leaving Martha a widow. She thereafter devoted herself to raising her son in the Christian faith and to a life of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in the city.

From childhood Simeon showed a strong monastic vocation. At a very early age he entered a monastery in the region of Antioch and later adopted the extreme asceticism of a stylite, living atop a pillar. The height southwest of Antioch on which his later pillar stood came to be called the Wonderful Mountain (Thaumaston Oros). Martha herself wished to enter a convent, but according to the tradition a heavenly vision directed her to remain in the world rather than take the monastic habit. She therefore lived as a consecrated widow in Antioch, practicing hospitality, caring for the poor and the sick, and keeping a strict personal rule of prayer.

She made regular visits to her son at his pillar, receiving his blessing and spiritual counsel. The sources portray her as a woman of recognized piety whose prayers were held to be efficacious, and they place her among the circle of devotees who gathered around the stylite. She continued this way of life until her death in 551. Her body was taken to the monastic settlement that had grown up around Simeon’s column on the Wonderful Mountain and was buried there. A church was later associated with her tomb, and miracles were reported at her relics.

Martha has been venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church from the early medieval period. Her principal feast is kept on 4 July. Almost everything known of her derives from the hagiographical literature surrounding her son (who died in 592) and from the separate Life of Martha; independent documentary evidence is lacking, as is common for many sixth-century Syrian holy women. The tradition consistently presents her as a model of Christian widowhood, maternal devotion, and charitable activity in the urban and monastic world of late antique Antioch.