From the Prologue of Ochrid
This wondrous saint was born in Antioch in the year 522, in the time of Emperor Justin the Elder. His father perished in an earthquake, and he was left alone with his mother Martha. In the sixth year of his life he withdrew to the desert to a certain spiritual father John, under whose guidance he gave himself over to great ascetical struggle of fasting and prayer, to the amazement of all who saw him. Having endured terrible demonic temptations, he received from the Lord and His angels great consolation and grace. The Lord Christ appeared to him in the form of a beautiful child. And after this vision a great love for Christ was kindled in Simeon's heart. Many years he spent on a pillar, praying to God and chanting psalms. By God's direction he then withdrew to a mountain called "Wonderful" by the Lord Himself. After the name of this mountain Simeon himself was called "of the Wonderful Mountain." In accordance with his love for God, he was given a rare grace, by which he healed every disease, tamed wild beasts, saw into distant parts of the world and into the hearts of men, went out of himself and beheld the heavens, conversed with angels, terrified and drove away demons, prophesied, lived at times for thirty days without sleep and even longer without food, and received food from the hands of angels. In him the words of the Savior were completely fulfilled: "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do" (John 14:12). In the year of the Lord 596, in the seventy-fifth year of his life, Simeon departed to the Lord, to delight eternally in the vision of the face of God together with the angels.
