St. Simon the Zealot

Who they were

Simon appears in every list of the Twelve and speaks in none of the Gospels. His entire recorded identity is the epithet: the Zealot, or in the older rendering the Cananean, from the Aramaic word for zeal. Whether it marks membership in the anti Roman resistance or simply a burning temperament, the lists force one observation on any honest reader. Jesus seated Simon the Zealot at the same table as St. Matthew the tax collector, the insurgent and the collaborator, the two ends of their society's bitterest divide, in one company for three years, and tradition records no defection from either man.

The traditions of his later mission travel with St. Jude, Persia in the best known account, which is why the Church keeps the two on one feast on 28 October, and they give him a martyr's end. Nothing about him is loud in the record, which is its own kind of witness for a man whose name means fire.

Why people turn to St. Simon the Zealot

Everyone whose politics have cost them communion with people they love. The Twelve are the argument: the table held both of them, and neither left.

How to ask their intercession

Name the person across the divide from you, and pray one decade for them at Simon and Matthew range, which means the same table with no conversion required first. And for the zealous, ask that the fire be aimed well.