ON SAINT SIMON,
ANCHORITE AMONG THE GREEKS.
Notice from the manuscript Constantinopolitan Synaxarion.
Simon, Anchorite among the Greeks (S.)
The manuscript Constantinopolitan Synaxarion, which we have often praised, preserved at Paris in our College; He seems to have had a sepulchre for a cell, with which (if I rightly remember) also agrees another of our College of Dijon, offered us the notice of this Saint under this formula.
On the same day, S. Simon rested in peace.
There is added, moreover, a Distich whence it seems to be understood
that he dwelt in a sepulchre, like S. James the Penitent, of whom there was treatment on the 28th of January.
A tomb is to Simon the brief lodging of his flesh, But of his soul the stable home is heaven. as once S. James the Penitent:
James lived in Palestine in the 6th century of Christ. There is nothing to persuade that Simon was older than the 9th century, or lived far from Constantinople: wherefore we place him here, and add the title of Anchorite, suited to a purpose of life of this kind.
[2] Book V on the Lives and Apophthegms of the Fathers, in Rosweyde, the Author being uncertain, Pelagius, Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, made Latin from the Greek, whom he, with Georgius Garneveltius, judges to have been afterward made Roman Pontiff, unless perhaps it is that contemner of human honor, and accordingly to have discharged Apostolic Legations in the East before the year 556, whence he is believed to have brought that book. In this is praised some Eastern man, and one probably older than James himself, Simon; certainly other than this our one, since this one truly dwelt in a sepulchre; concerning whom in the same place these things are related. There came once the Judge of the Province to see Abbot Simon: and he took the thong with which he was girt, and climbed into a palm tree to clean it. But they coming said to him, Where is the Old man who dwells in this solitude? And he answered: There is no solitary here. (Because, namely, the Judge was now there with his retinue) and when he had said this, the Judge departed. The same is read in Greek-Latin, as also that which follows, in Cotelier in the Apophthegms of the Fathers, volume 1 of the Monuments of the Eastern Church, page 685.
[3] At another time likewise there came another Judge; and the Clerks going before said to him, Abba, be ready; whose praise is in book 5 on the Lives of the Fathers. for the Judge, hearing of thee, comes to be blessed by thee. And he said: I too will prepare myself. And covering himself with his sack, and taking in his hand bread and cheese, he sat at the entrance of his little cell, and began to eat. The Judge, then, came with his train, and seeing him spurned him, saying: Is this the solitary Monk, of whom we used to hear such things? And immediately they departed, and returned to themselves. Behold, this Simon dwelt in a little cell, not a sepulchre: yet it pleased to relate these things here, if perhaps it should seem otherwise to anyone. For it can be that in the above-set Distich the flesh of Simon, not his life but dead, should be said to have dwelt in a sepulchre, as the soul in heaven: nor is it new that some of the more ancient Fathers were thus inscribed in more recent Synaxaria: in which case this Simon could be referred to the 5th century, and esteemed older than James himself, and to have lived in the same Palestine.