A native of Mitylene (on Lesbos), Symeon 13 was the son of Hadrianos 7 and Konstanto 1 and brother of David 13 and Georgios 135; they also had a sister, Hilaria 1; at the age of eight he went to join his brother David in his monastery; at age twenty-two he became a monk and in his twenty-eighth year was consecrated priest by the bishop of Galgala (Gargara) (Anonymus 266); after the death of David 13 he lived as a stylite for thirty-three years, near the Church of the Theotokos nicknamed Molos at the south harbour (perhaps of Mitylene); together with his brother Georgios 135 he performed miracles; during the reign of the emperor Leo V (Leo 15; 813/820) he was forced to abandon his column when a fire was laid at its foot by agents of the emperor leo V (cf. Anonymus 271); during the reign of Michael II (Michael 10; 820/829) he fell victim to the jealousy of the iconoclast bishop of Lesbos, Leo 117; charges were laid against him before the patriarch Theodotos 2, and Symeon was exiled to the island of Lagousa (Taochan Adasa, near the Troad) with seven pupils; he was then in his fifty-fourth year (so the Acta; allegedly falsely); he remained two years on a column there, but then left it at the time of the rebellion of Thomas the Slav (Thomas 7; 821/823) and went first to Constantinople and then to Medikion, Sigriane and Kyzikos; he cured the nun Hypatia 4 (Febronia); he performed a miracle with a winejar and a grasshopper at the house of Stephanos 88; under the emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5) he was condemned to one hundred and fifty lashes and banished with others to Aphousia; there he cured Georgios 133 ; after the death of Theophilos 5 he had talks with the empress Theodora 2 and Petronas 5 and with the patriarch Ioannes grammatikos (Ioannes 5) and was persuaded not to condemn Theophilos; he took part in the nomination of Methodios 1 as patriarch; in 843 he was named as synkellos of Methodios 1, on the first Sunday of Lent (4 March); he died in 844 on Lesbos; he is commemorated as a saint with his brothers on 1 February: Acta Davidis, Symeonis et Georgii, passim.

Styled τοῦ ὁσιωτάτου στυλίτου, Symeon 13 is included among those acclaimed for their support of icons in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy: Gouillard, "Synodikon", p. 53, line 132.

The detailed account of Symeon and his brothers has been questioned because of the chronological improbabilities of the Acta; cf. PmbZ 7178 with references.

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