Symeoni: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Simeon was, in the words of the Gospel, a just and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Church tradition adds that he was one of the seventy scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek at Alexandria. Coming to the words of Isaiah, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive”, he wished to write “woman” instead, but an angel stopped his hand and promised that he would live to see the prophecy fulfilled. On the fortieth day after Christ’s birth, the Virgin Mary and Joseph brought the Child to the Temple. Led by the Spirit, the aged Simeon came in, recognised his Saviour and took Him in his arms; this is why the Church calls him the God-receiver. He gave thanks to God and sang the song the Church still sings at every Vespers: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” He foretold that the Child would be for the fall and rising of many, and that a sword would pierce His Mother’s soul. Tradition says he reposed soon after, at a great age; his relics were brought to Constantinople in the sixth century. The Church remembers him with the Prophetess Anna on 3 February (16 February on the Old Calendar), the day after the Meeting of the Lord.

What the faithful pray for

• patience and faith in long waiting on God
• a peaceful Christian end of this life
• eyes to see the salvation of God
• the elderly who wait for the Lord in prayer