Saint Simeon, Bishop & Martyr
S. Simeonis Episcopi et Martyris
Saint Simeon was the second Bishop of Jerusalem, a kinsman of our Lord according to the flesh, who governed that mother-church for many years and was crowned with martyrdom in extreme old age under the Emperor Trajan.
On the eighteenth of February the Church honours Saint Simeon, Bishop and Martyr, who succeeded Saint James the Less as the second Bishop of Jerusalem. The early historian Eusebius of Caesarea, drawing on the second-century writer Hegesippus, hands down what is reliably known of him, and it is from this venerable testimony that his feast draws its substance.
Simeon was a kinsman of the Lord, named among “the brethren of the Lord” — that is, a near relative, the son of Cleophas. After the martyrdom of Saint James about the year 62, the apostles and disciples who remained chose Simeon to shepherd the Church of Jerusalem, the community from which the Gospel had first gone out to the world.
Shepherd and Martyr
According to Hegesippus, Simeon guided the Jerusalem church through years of great trial, including the upheavals that surrounded the destruction of the city. In his extreme old age — the ancient account gives the remarkable figure of one hundred and twenty years — he was accused before the Roman authorities during the reign of Trajan, both as a Christian and as one of the line of David. After enduring many days of torture with a constancy that astonished his judges, he was put to death by crucifixion, following his Lord even in the manner of his death.
Saint Simeon belongs to the first generation of those who had known the Lord and His apostles, a living bridge between the age of the Gospel and the growing Church. His long fidelity and his courageous end commend to us the perseverance that crowns a whole life given to Christ.
The Collect
Patronage
Saint Simeon is venerated especially in connection with the Church of Jerusalem, of which he was the second bishop.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this commemoration does not appear as a feast of the General Roman Calendar; Saint Simeon of Jerusalem is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Simeon, Bishop and Martyr?
His feast is kept on 18 February in the 1962 calendar, as a commemoration of the Fourth Class in the red of martyrs.
Who was Saint Simeon?
He was the second Bishop of Jerusalem, a kinsman of our Lord and successor of Saint James the Less. He governed that church for many years and was martyred by crucifixion in great old age under the Emperor Trajan.
How do we know about him?
The principal source is the second-century writer Hegesippus, preserved in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. This early testimony gives us his office, his kinship with the Lord, and the manner of his martyrdom.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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