Supplies are winched up to him by his followers and he only comes down twice a week to pray with his followers.

But having worked as a crane operator before taking his orders in 1993, Maxime has always had a head for heights.

He said: ‘It is up here in the silence that you can feel God’s presence.’

His only visitors are priests and a group of troubled young men who are seeking solace in the monastry at the foot of the pillar.

Instead he had to spend four days taking part in seven hours of daily prayers including a four hour stint from 2am until sunrise.

When he finally was granted permission to scale the ‘dicey’ ladder to the top, he was worried that it might be too dark to get back down.

After making it to the top, Maxime told Amos that he became a monk after a stretch in prison and decided he wanted to make a change.

The monk slept in a fridge when he first moved to the top of the pillar, but now has a bed inside a cottage.

The Katskhi Pillar was used by stylites, Christians who lived on top of pillars to avoid worldly temptation until the 15th century when the practice was stopped following the Ottoman invasion of Georgia.

Support: Sergo Mikhelidze and a friend deliver lunch to Maxime at the top of the Katskhi Pillar by winch up supplies to the monk who has cut himself off from society

Self-contained: The church and other buildings on top of the Katskhi Pillar (left) and the Interior of the chapel (right)

For centuries the 40 metres (130ft) high pillar lay abandoned and locals could only look up at the mysterious ruins at its summit.

Finally, in 1944 a group led by the mountaineer Alexander Japaridze made the first documented ascent of the pillar and discovered the remains of a chapel and the skeleton of a stylite who had perished there.

Shortly after the collapse of communism, and the subsequent resurgence of religion in Georgia, Maxime decided to live atop the pillar in the way of the old stylites.

He said: ‘When I was young I drank, sold drugs, everything. When I ended up in prison I knew it was time for a change.

‘I used to drink with friends in the hills around here and look up at this place, where land met sky.

‘We knew the monks had lived up there before and I felt great respect for them’.

Beautiful: Overview of the Katskhi Pillar in its craggy surrounds high above his Georgian monastry for 20 years. Supplies are winched up to him by his followers and he only comes down twice a week to pray with his followers

Maxime inside his cottage on top of the Katskhi Pillar. Shortly after the collapse of communism, and the subsequent resurgence of religion in Georgia, Maxime decided to live atop the pillar in the way of the old stylites.

Devoted: Maxime receives his lunch at the top of the Katskhi Pillar. His supporters winch supplies up a 131ft ladder

Remains of a stylist found on top of the Katskhi Pillar in a crypt under the church. The Katskhi Pillar was used by stylites, Christians who lived atop pillars and eschewed worldly temptation, until the 15th century

In 1993 Maxime took monastic vows and climbed the pillar to begin his new life.

‘For the first two years there was nothing up here so I slept in an old fridge to protect me from the weather.’

Since then Maxime and the Christian community in the area have constructed a ladder to the top, rebuilt the church, and built a cottage where Maxime spends his days praying, reading, and ‘preparing to meet god’.

As a result of the interest in the site there is now a religious community at the base of the pillar.

Men with trouble in their lives come to stay and ask for guidance from Maxime and the young priests who live at the site.

The men are fed and housed on the condition they join the priests in praying for around seven hours per day, including from 2am-sunrise, and help with chores.

Maxime usually climbs down from the pillar once or twice a week for night prayers and to speak with men who seek help and guidance.

Speaking about his isolation, Maxime comments: ‘I need the silence. It is up here in the silence that you can feel god’s presence.’

DEVOTED TO THEIR CAUSE: THE STYLITE MOVEMENT AND ITS ORIGINS

A sketch of Saint Simeon Stylites, the hermit of the pillar, thought to be the first member of the movement

The stylites were a group of early Christian ascetics who spent long periods of time sitting or standing on top of narrow pillars. The word comes from the Greek stylos for a column.

The best known of these pillar monks was the first, St Simeon Stylites, who sat for thirty years from AD423 onwards on top of a column.

The record is thought to be held by the sixth-century St Alypius, who is believed to have remained on his pillar for 67 years without a break, for the last fourteen of them lying down because his feet could no longer support him.

The Katskhi pillar is a limestone monolith located in the village of Katskhi in western Georgian region of Imereti, about 10 kilometers from the mining town of Chiatura.

In pagan times, before the advent of Christianity, the towering Katskhi Pillar was thought to represent a local god of fertility.

With the arrival of Christianity in Georgia in the 4th century, the rock came to represent seclusion. The locals call it the Pillar of Life.

At the summit of the Katskhi pillar, are the remains of a small church built between the 6th and 8th centuries. The church was probably built by the Stylites, who were early Christian ascetics who stood on top of pillars and preaching and praying.

The only written record of the Katskhi pillar occur in the text of an 18th-century Georgian scholar, who noted the church for its inaccessibility.

The Church of Saint Simeon Stylites is a historical building located about 30km (19 mi) northwest of Aleppo, Syria.

It is the oldest surviving Byzantine church, dating back to the 5th century.
St. Simeon was born in 386 AD in a village in the Amanus Mountains.

Saint Simeon joined a monastery in this area, but soon decided to seek the religious life alone as a hermit monk.

He relocated to the top of a pillar eventually reaching 49ft high to achieve greater seclusion.

Soon the monk attracted even greater crowds who came from far and near to hear him preach twice a day.

Within just a few decades (c.475), a vast martyrium was built in Simeon’s honor on this site.

It consisted of four basilicas radiating from the sides of a central octagon, within which was enshrined the famous column.

St. Simeon’s pillar can still be seen in the center of the courtyard, although it is now only a 6ft 7in high boulder due to centuries of relic-gathering by pilgrims.