ST. SIMEON was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to
St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore
nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin-german
to Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name, and this saint is,
according to the best interpreters of the holy scripture, the Simon
mentioned,[1] who was brother to St. James the Lesser, and St. Jude,
apostles, and to Joseph or Jose. He was eight or nine years older than
our Saviour. We cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, as
his father and mother and three brothers were, and an exception to that
of St. John,[2] that our Lord's relations did not believe in him. Nor
does St. Luke[3] leave us any room to doubt but that he received the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the blessed Virgin and the
apostles; for he mentions present St. James and St. Jude, and the
brothers of our Lord. St. Epiphanius relates,[4] that when the Jews
massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for
their atrocious cruelty. St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, being put to
death in the year 62, twenty-nine years after our Saviour's
resurrection, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him
a successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had probably before
assisted his brother in the government of that church.
In the year 66, in which SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome,
the civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the
Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending
destruction of that city, and by a divine revelation[5] commanded to
leave it, as Lot was rescued out of Sodom. They therefore departed out
of it the same year, before Vespasian, Nero's general, and afterward
emperor, entered Judaea, and retired beyond Jordan to a small city called
Pella; having St. Simeon at their head. After the taking and burning of
Jerusalem they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its
{428} ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it. St. Epiphanius[6]
and Eusebius[7] assure us, that the church here flourished extremely,
and that multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of
prodigies and miracles wrought in it.
St. Simeon, amidst the consolations of the Holy Ghost and the great
progress of the church, had the affliction to see two heresies arise
within its bosom, namely, those of the Nazareans and the Ebionites; the
first seeds of which, according to St. Epiphanius, appeared at Pella.
The Nazareans were a sect of men between Jews and Christians, but
abhorred by both. They allowed Christ to be the greatest of the
prophets, but said he was a mere man, whose natural parents were Joseph
and Mary: they joined all the ceremonies of the old law with the new,
and observed both the Jewish Sabbath and the Sunday. Ebion added other
errors to these, which Cerenthus had also espoused, and taught many
superstitions, permitted divorces, and allowed of the most infamous
abominations. He began to preach at Cocabe, a village beyond Jordan,
where he dwelt; but he afterwards travelled into Asia, and thence to
Rome. The authority of St. Simeon kept the heretics in some awe during
his life, which was the longest upon earth of any of our Lord's
disciples. But, as Eusebius says, he was no sooner dead than a deluge of
execrable heresies broke out of hell upon the church, which durst not
openly appear during his life.
Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of
the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches; but Trajan
having given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused him, as
being both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman
governor in Palestine. The holy bishop was condemned by him to be
crucified: who, after having undergone the usual tortures during several
days, which, though one hundred and twenty years old, he suffered with
so much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of
Atticus in particular, he died in 107, according to Eusebius in his
chronicle, but in 116, according to Dodwell, bishop Loyde, and F. Pagi.
He must have governed the church of Jerusalem about forty-three years.
* * * * *
The eminent saints among the primitive disciples of Jesus Christ, were
entirely animated by his spirit, and being dead to the world and
themselves, they appeared like angels among men. Free from the secret
mixture of the sinister views of all passions, to a degree which was a
miracle of grace, they had in all things only God, his will and honor,
before their eyes, equally aspiring to him through honor and infamy. In
the midst of human applause they remained perfectly humbled in the
centre of their own nothing: when loaded with reproaches and contempt,
and persecuted with all the rage that malice could inspire, they were
raised above all these things so as to stand fearless amid racks and
executioners, inflexibly constant in their fidelity to God, before
tyrants, invincible under torments, and superior to them almost as if
they had been impassible. Their resolution never failed them, their
fervor seemed never slackened. Such wonderful men wrought continual
miracles in converting souls to God. We bear the name of Christians, and
wear the habit of Saints; but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and
our actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves,
even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and while we
undertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall
we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we
may lay a solid foundation of true virtue, and establish its reign in
our hearts?
Footnotes:
1. Matt. xiii.55.
2. John vii. 5.
3. Acts i. 14.
4. Haer. 78. c. 14.
5. Eus. l. 3, c. 5, Epiph. haer. 29, c. 7, haer. 30, c. 2.
6. L. de Pond. et Mensur. c. 15.
7. Demonst. l. 3, c. 5.
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