Apostle 1st century

Apostle Simon the Zealot

1st century

Also known as Simon the Canaanite · Simon of Cana

One of the Twelve, called the Zealot, traditionally remembered as the bridegroom of the wedding at Cana who, beholding the Lord's first sign, left all to follow Him and later preached the Gospel to many nations.

Feast Day

May 10

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Commemorated as

The Holy and Glorious Apostle Simon the Zealot

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Missionary Work

Life

Simon the Zealot was one of the Twelve Apostles. He appears in all four New Testament lists of the apostles, where he is distinguished from Simon Peter by a surname: in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark he is called "the Canaanite" (or Cananaean), while Luke and the Book of Acts name him "the Zealot." Both forms derive from a Hebrew root meaning "zealous," and the synaxarion and later commentators have read the title either as a mark of his fervor for Christ or as an indication of his political or religious zeal before his calling.

By Orthodox tradition Simon was a native of Cana in Galilee and was known to the Lord and His Mother. The tradition further holds that he was the bridegroom at the wedding in Cana where Christ worked His first sign, turning water into wine. Having witnessed that miracle, he is said to have left all to become a zealous follower of Christ, and it is from this zeal that the synaxarion explains his title. He was numbered among the Twelve and received the Holy Spirit with the other apostles at Pentecost.

After Pentecost Simon devoted himself to missionary preaching. The Orthodox account remembers him traveling widely "from Britain to the Black Sea," proclaiming the Gospel and winning many pagans to Christ, and relates that he at last suffered martyrdom by crucifixion. Beyond this core narrative the traditions about his fields of labor and the manner of his death diverge considerably across the churches, and the sources hedge accordingly.

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Name and Epithet

The apostle is identified in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as "Simon the Canaanite" (Greek Kananites) and in Luke and Acts as "Simon the Zealot" (Greek zelotes). Modern scholarship generally treats both as renderings of the same Aramaic or Hebrew word for "zealous," rather than a reference to the town of Cana or to the land of Canaan. Some Western writers, including Jerome and Bede, did connect the name to Cana in Galilee, which accords with the Orthodox tradition that places his origin there.

In every case the surname serves to mark him off from Simon Peter, with whom he shared the common name Simon. Orthodox tradition, citing St. Demetrius of Rostov, is careful to distinguish this Simon both from the Apostle Peter and from Simon (Symeon), the kinsman of the Lord who became the second Bishop of Jerusalem.

Missionary Labors and Martyrdom

The synaxarion summarizes Simon's apostolate as a far-flung preaching mission reaching from Britain in the West to the Black Sea in the East, concluding in his martyrdom by crucifixion. Other traditions, recorded outside the Orthodox synaxarion, send him variously to Egypt and Africa, to Persia and Armenia in the company of the Apostle Jude, and to the Caucasus; an Eastern tradition in particular holds that he labored in the region of Georgia and died in Abkhazia. The accounts of his death likewise vary, including crucifixion, being sawn asunder, and a peaceful repose, and in Western art the saw became his identifying attribute on the strength of one such tradition.

Because these later traditions do not agree, the Orthodox commemoration rests chiefly on the constant elements: that Simon was one of the Twelve, that he preached the Gospel among many nations after Pentecost, and that he died a martyr.

Notes

Distinct from Simon Peter and from the minor Apostles of the Seventy.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints