Simon the Zealot

The holy Apostle Simon the Zealot was one of the twelve Apostles of the Lord. The Gospels call him the Zealot or the Canaanite, two names with the same meaning, the zealous one. Scripture says little about him, and the rest comes from Tradition.

The disciple

His name appears in all the lists of the Apostles in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, with no further detail. According to Tradition he was from Cana of Galilee, known to the Lord and His Mother, and was the bridegroom at the wedding where the Saviour worked His first miracle. Seeing the water made wine, he became a zealous follower of Christ, hence the name. Saint Demetrius of Rostov distinguishes him from the Apostle Simon Peter and from the Lord's relative Simon, the second bishop of Jerusalem. He received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Preaching and death

The sources differ. According to the Orthodox tradition he preached in Persia, then in Africa from Egypt to Mauritania, and last in Britain, where pagans seized him, tortured him and crucified him. Another tradition, from Georgia, says he died in Abkhazia and was buried at Nicopsis, and that his remains were later moved to Anacopia. Other sources speak of death in Persia, sawn in two together with the Apostle Jude, which is why a saw appears in his iconography. All agree that his life ended in martyrdom.

Commemoration

The Church celebrates him on 10 May, and on 30 June in the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles. The Greek synaxarion also commemorates him on 22 April. In the West he is kept on 28 October together with Jude.