SIMEON, Saint. — “A just and pious man, who was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (Lk 2:25). He had received the promise that he would not die before seeing “the Christ of the Lord.” He recognized Him in the child Jesus presented in the Temple, pronounced the Nunc dimittis (q.v.), and foretold His destiny (Lk 2:25-35).
According to the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James (ch. 24), he would have been a priest, or rather, according to the legendary Gospel of Nicodemus, he would have been a *sacerdos magnus*, father of Carinus and Leucius, who were later raised from the dead by Jesus. However, from the context of St. Luke it does not appear that St. Simeon was a priest. According to the Pseudo-Matthew (15:2), St. Simeon would have been 112 years old when he received the child Jesus “on his pallium”; according to the Laurentian codex of this apocryphon, the old man, who could barely stand, as soon as he received the Child “ran to the altar of the Temple of the Lord,” because “the old man carried the boy, but the boy guided the old man.” Some, following Wettstein, Zahn, and Plummer, identify him with Rabbi S., son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel I (cf. Acts 5:34). Since, however, this rabbi was still alive in AD 13, while the Simeon of Lk 2 seems to have died shortly after the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the identification is highly questionable. H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck (Komm., II, Munich 1924, p. 124) reject this and other identifications. In the Roman Martyrology, St. Simeon is commemorated on October 8; in the Byzantine liturgy, on February 13. His relics are said to have been transferred in the 6th century to Constantinople and in 1243 to Zara, where they are venerated in a precious silver reliquary (cf. Illustrazione vatic., 1932, pp. 107-10).
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SIMEON BAR SABA, Saint. — A native of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (Persia), he was a martyr killed by Shapur II at Karkha de Ledan on April 17, 344 (according to Peeters, 341).
According to the Acts, which are reliable, the Saint is said to have refused to collect double taxes from Christians to wage war against the Romans. He heads a group of about a hundred Persian martyrs, among whom stand out Ghiistàzàd, an eunuch who had been Shapur’s former tutor, Abedechala and Ananias, priests, and Pusicius, prefect of the imperial artisans. His feast is celebrated on April 21.
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SIMEON, Bishop of Jerusalem, Saint, Martyr. —
Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Saint, Martyr — The martyrdom of St. Simeon. Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II (976-1025) — Vatican Library, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, f. 46.
According to the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James (ch. 24), he would have been a priest, or rather, according to the legendary Gospel of Nicodemus, he would have been a *sacerdos magnus*, father of Carinus and Leucius, who were later raised from the dead by Jesus. However, from the context of St. Luke it does not appear that St. Simeon was a priest. According to the Pseudo-Matthew (15:2), St. Simeon would have been 112 years old when he received the child Jesus “on his pallium”; according to the Laurentian codex of this apocryphon, the old man, who could barely stand, as soon as he received the Child “ran to the altar of the Temple of the Lord,” because “the old man carried the boy, but the boy guided the old man.” Some, following Wettstein, Zahn, and Plummer, identify him with Rabbi S., son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel I (cf. Acts 5:34). Since, however, this rabbi was still alive in AD 13, while the Simeon of Lk 2 seems to have died shortly after the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the identification is highly questionable. H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck (Komm., II, Munich 1924, p. 124) reject this and other identifications. In the Roman Martyrology, St. Simeon is commemorated on October 8; in the Byzantine liturgy, on February 13. His relics are said to have been transferred in the 6th century to Constantinople and in 1243 to Zara, where they are venerated in a precious silver reliquary (cf. Illustrazione vatic., 1932, pp. 107-10).