The Emperors Vespasian and Domitian had ordered that all descendants of King David be put to death. Emperor Trajan (98-117) renewed that decree, and certain heretics and some others denounced Saint Simeon as a descendant of King David, as well as a Christian.
The pagans arrested Saint Simeon, who at that time was more than one hundred and twenty years old. He astonished the judge and his attendants by enduring several days of torture, and then he was crucified in the year 107, during Trajan’s reign, when Atticus was consul.
The Parisian Codices contain a Service in honor of Saint Simeon, the poem of the hymnographer Theophanēs. (Some Synaxaristes also commemorate him on September 18).
Symeon was a first cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the son of Clopas (or Cleopas, also called Alphaeus), the brother of Joseph the Betrothed. He became the second Bishop of Jerusalem, as a successor to James the Brother of God. He ended his life when he was crucified during the reign of Trajan, in 107, at the age of 120.
He was the son of Cleopas, who was the brother of Joseph, the betrothed of the All-holy Mother of God. Seeing the miracles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Simeon believed and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles. With great zeal and courage, he preached the Gospel of Christ throughout Judea. When the iniquitous Jews killed James, the brother of the Lord and the first bishop of the Church of Jerusalem, by hurling him from the heights of the Temple and beating him over the head with a club, then this Simeon, a cousin of James, was appointed Bishop of Jerusalem. And Simeon, as the second bishop of the Holy City, governed the Church of God with wisdom and strength unto great old age. He was over a hundred years old when he suffered. His suffering was in this manner: During the reign of Emperor Trajan, a twofold persecution began in Palestine–against the descendants of David and against the Christians. Wicked men accused Simeon of being both. St. Simeon endured harsh torture and was finally crucified, as had been the Lord, Whom he had faithfully served on earth.
