Saint Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin-german to Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name.

According to the best interpreters of the holy scripture, Simon is mentioned in Mathew 13:55, as the brother to St. James the Lesser, and St. Jude, apostles. He was an early follower of Christ, just as his parents and three brothers.

From Acts 1:14 we understand that he received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost with the Blessed Virgin, the apostles, and his brothers.

Saint Epiphanius wrote, ‘when the Jews massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for their atrocious cruelty’. St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, being put to death in the year 62, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him a successor. They unanimously chose Simeon, who had probably before assisted his brother in the governance of the church.

In the year 66, in which Saints Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, a civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending destruction of the city, and by a divine revelation commanded to leave it.

They therefore departed from Jerusalem the same year, before Vespasian, Nero’s general, and afterwards emperor, entered Judea, and retired beyond the Jordan to a small city called Pella; having St. Simeon as their head. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem, they returned, and settled themselves amidst its ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it.

St. Epiphanius and Eusebius assure us, that the church here flourished extremely, and multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of prodigies and miracles wrought in it.

Vespasian and Domitian commanded all to be put to death who were of the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches; but Trajan having given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused him, as being both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman governor in Palestine.

The Holy Bishop was condemned by him to be crucified. Though Simeon was 120 years old, he suffered tortures with so much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of Atticus in particular.

Saint Simeon is recorded to have been martyred around AD107. He is believed to have governed the church of Jerusalem for about forty-three years.
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Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Jean-François-Régis Clet
2. Saint Theotonius of Coimbra
3. Saint Tarasius of Constantinople
4. Saint Angilbert of Centula
5. Saint Colman of Lindisfarne

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