SIMEON OF JERUSALEM

On May 10, the Orthodox Church honors the memory of Saint Simeon of Jerusalem. He is one of the rare early apostolic saints, contemporaries of the Lord Himself, and, moreover, one of His relatives.

There are some details about the life of Saint Simeon. It is known that he was the bishop of Jerusalem after the martyrdom of James, the Brother of the Lord (+62). Before the First Jewish War (66-73), Simeon led the Christian community from Palestine to the city of Petra in Jordan. Thus, he saved the Christians of the Holy Land from destruction.

Around 107, when Simeon himself was already over a hundred years old, the Romans requested that the descendants of King David be handed over. Then his fellow tribesmen handed Simeon over to the pagans. In the image of Christ the Savior, Simeon was also crucified on the Cross. Simeon’s courage and patience in suffering amazed the then Roman governor of Palestine.

Tradition says that Simeon was the son of Cleopas, the brother of Joseph the Righteous, mentioned in the Gospel. Another tradition says that it was Simeon who was Cleopas’ companion on the road to Emmaus, when the Resurrected Jesus appeared to the two companions.

It turns out that the Son of God, resurrected from the dead by His Heavenly Father, according to the Scriptures, appeared on the road to the father and son, that is, Cleopas and Simeon. Such an amazing parallel, touching on the sphere of Christian dogma, and, at the same time, a touching detail, reminiscent of the biblical commandment to preserve the faith in the people and pass it on from children to parents.

Finally, some ancient commentators identified Simeon of Jerusalem with Simeon the God-Receiver from the St Like’s Gospel. Others believed that he was the mysterious Simon of Cyrene, who, during the Lord’s Passion, was ordered to carry the Cross of Christ the Savior. Sometimes it was thought that Simeon was one and the same person as Simon, one of the Twelve Apostles.

The ways of the Lord are mysterious. The diaries of human memory are incomprehensible. The latter gave Simeon’s personality specific features of church and New Testament history. Taking advantage of this, the Holy Spirit did not reject even doubtful opinions and thus, by an extraordinary and inexplicable method of grace, preserved the memory of Simeon from oblivion in popular piety.