The holy, glorious, all-laudable Apostle and Hieromartyr Symeon the Kinsman of the Lord (Simeon) of the Seventy, was the second Bishop of Jerusalem, serving for the period of 67 to 107. He is commemorated by the Church on April 27, and on January 4 with the Seventy.
St. Symeon was the son of Cleopas, the younger brother of St. Joseph the Betrothed. He was a witness to the miracles of Jesus Christ and came to believe in him.
After the Apostle James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, was killed in 63 AD, the Christians elected the Apostle Symeon to take his place. During the reign of Emperor Trajan, it was reported to the Roman governor Atticus that St. Symeon was of the lineage of King David and that he confessed the Christian Faith.
The pagans seized St. Symeon, at that time already 100 years of age, and after prolonged torture, crucified him. St. Symeon is mentioned in Acts 13:1: “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”
Tr by orthodoxwiki.org
