Pillar saints at this time were attracting attention near Antioch. There was an older Simeon who died in 460, and a younger Simeon who died in 596. A monk of Raithou went to Simeon hoping to be relieved of a demon. But Simeon bade him return to Raithou, and there seek the assistance of Father Andrew, who had the power of expelling demons. Andrew spoke to Moschus of his power to do so, which he attributed to Simeon Stylites.[175] Again, Mena, also of Raithou, deserted his post and sought the pillar saint, who, aware of his failing, bade him return, as Abbas Sergius told Moschus (no. 118). There was also Eusebius who was accosted by a man in monkish garb, who asked to be admitted into the community. Eusebius bade him utter the word Trinity, and he vanished (no. 119). Those who dwelt in remote districts often died unattended. Some fishermen were borne by contrary winds to Pteleos where they found in a cell the bodies of two hermits, which they carried to Raithou for burial (no. 120). Again, two hermits dwelt on an island in the Red Sea, from which they went on shore for water. They lost their boat, and were found dead on the island, one of them having set down in writing that his comrade lived for twenty-eight days without drinking, when he died, while he himself had lasted thirty-seven days at the time of his writing (no. 121). There was growing, at this time, a feeling that the devotees to a simple life should remain stationary. John Cilix, abbot of Raithou, who wrote comments on some of the chapters of John Climacus’ _Ladder of Paradise_, praised a monk who continued at Raithou for seventy years, living on green meat and dates. He had been there himself for seventy-six years, and he admonished the brethren in words recorded by Moschus, “not to foul the place which the fathers had cleared of demons,” and always to remain in residence (no. 115). The collection of anecdotes of Anastasius, a monk of Sinai, mentions several hermit settlements which have been located in wadis near the convent, where ruins of huts and garden walls remain to this day. According to a tradition preserved at the convent, the monks in the peninsula at one time were between six and seven thousand in number.[176]