Symeon of Jerusalem

The holy hieromartyr Symeon was the second bishop of Jerusalem, after James the brother of the Lord, and he suffered martyrdom under the emperor Trajan, around the year 107. He is commemorated on 27 April, and with the Seventy Apostles on 17 January.

His kinship with the Lord

According to tradition Symeon was the son of Clopas, brother of Joseph, the betrothed of the Mother of God, and so a cousin of the Saviour. Some have identified him with Simon, the “brother of the Lord” mentioned in the Gospels (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3); others hold that the brothers of the Lord were brothers in the literal sense, and some have linked him with the apostle Simon the Zealot. The sources do not agree fully, and so his identity remains partly unclear. Serbian sources say that he believed in Christ on seeing His miracles and was counted among the Seventy Apostles, preaching the Gospel zealously throughout Judea.

Bishop of Jerusalem

The historian Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Church History, gives the list of the bishops of Jerusalem. According to him the first was James the Just, the “brother of the Lord”, appointed bishop by the apostles, and after James was killed Symeon succeeded him on the throne, after the fall of Jerusalem and in any case no later than the year 70. Hegesippus adds that Symeon prevailed against Thebutis, whom the Fathers judged a heretic, and that he led most of the Christians to Pella before the outbreak of the Jewish-⁠Roman war in 66 and the destruction of the Temple in 70. With wisdom he cared for the Church in the Holy Places until deep old age.

Martyrdom

In the time of the emperor Trajan a persecution arose in Palestine against the descendants of David and against the Christians, and Symeon was denounced as the one and as the other. According to Eusebius he was condemned around 107 by a Roman governor, in Jerusalem or near it. The name of the governor that Eusebius gives does not fit the chronology, so historians regard it as a mistake. The sources say that he was over a hundred years old, and the Church remembers that he endured great torments and was crucified, like the Lord whom he had confessed.