Simeon of Novgorod

Saint Simeon (in monasticism Sampson) was a monk of the Khutyn monastery and archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov, chosen by lot in 1415 and fallen asleep on 15 June 1421. He was canonized as a hierarch. Our sources do not give his feast day in the church calendar.

Election and consecration

On 11 August 1415 he was chosen by lot, from among the monks of the Khutyn monastery, to be consecrated for the see of Novgorod. On 15 March 1416 Metropolitan Photius of Kyiv and all Rus ordained him, in the Archangel cathedral at Moscow, hierodeacon, on 21 March hieromonk, and on 22 March bishop of Novgorod and Pskov, raised to the rank of archbishop. At the consecration there took part, with Metropolitan Photius, five hierarchs: Gregory of Rostov, Mitrophan of Suzdal, Anthony of Tver, Timothy of Sarai and Isaac of Perm, in the time of Grand Prince Vasily Dmitrievich. On 16 April 1416 he was received with honour in Novgorod by the posadnik, the tysyatsky and the clergy of Holy Wisdom.

Buildings and peace in the city

In the same year he built at his own expense two stone churches at Novgorod: one of Saint Peter, metropolitan of Moscow, on the gates of the archbishop's court, and one of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, in the kremlin, behind Saint Sophia. In 1417, in the time of a plague, he made processions around Novgorod and consecrated a wooden church, raised in one day, of the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Poisons, called "Saint Nostasia". In 1418 he was first mediator between the people and the boyars, then peacemaker, stopping the battle on the bridge over the Volkhov between the Trade side and the Sophia side. In the autumn of the same year, after the conclusion of peace between the Novgorodians and Pskov, he went there for a month to give judgment and delivered an instruction on the duty to give honour and obedience to "one's holy hierarch and spiritual fathers", not to steal another's goods, not to rejoice in another's misfortune, not to be proud and not to wrong the Church, and not to interfere in anything which had belonged to the bishopric from the beginning in land, waters, judgments, seals and all church dues.

He also wrote an epistle to the Snetogorsk monastery at Pskov, on keeping the common rule and on the fact that the abbot and elders cannot be judged by lay judges. He says he has heard that in the monastery they live "not as monks", without a confessor, without obedience to the abbot and elders, and that some monks leave the monastery and bring lay people and lay judges against the abbot and elders. He orders that those who disturb the order be driven out without being given back what they brought. He forbids the prince, the posadnik and the judge to interfere in the monastery's disputes and says that the property of deceased monks is inherited by the monastic community, not by a lay person or a relative.

Peace and the end

On 25 February 1419 he blessed Prince Constantine Dmitrievich, received by the Novgorodians, who had quarrelled with his brother, Grand Prince Vasily Dmitrievich, and in 1421, with the posadniks, tysyatskys and boyars, he saw him off from Novgorod, giving him gifts. In 1419 he travelled through the land of Karelia after the Norwegians had laid it waste and ruined several churches and monasteries, and to reconcile the Karelians with the Norwegians and to spread Christianity among the pagans he made several journeys to the north. In 1420 he helped the Novgorodians to conclude perpetual peace with Livonia at Narva, on the old terms from the time of Alexander Nevsky, concerning borders and trade. He fell asleep on 15 June 1421 and was buried in the Martyrius porch of the cathedral of Saint Sophia at Novgorod. His relics rest under the floor, not uncovered. Of his writings there survive the epistle to Snetogorsk, the instruction for Pskov and an instruction on prayer.