Devotees will commemorate on Saturday, Feb. 18, the life and works of Saint Simeon (San Simon), an early follower of Jesus Christ who later served as bishop of Jerusalem.
St. Simeon was a nephew of Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the son of St. Joseph’s brother Cleophas, otherwise known as Alpheus, who was married to a sister of the Blessed Mother.
After St. James, the Lesser, then the bishop of Jerusalem was killed by the Jews in the year 62 or twenty-nine years after the Resurrection of Christ, the apostles met to appoint a successor and unanimously chose St. Simeon.
He died a martyr of the Christian faith in the year 107. In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Simeon was mentioned as one of Jesus’ early followers who received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.