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''Simeon the Holy Fool'' (Abba Simeon, Saint Simeon Salos or Saint Simeon Salus) was a Christian monk, hermit and saint of the sixth century AD. Holy fools and puppeteers have Simeon as their patron saint.〔''Holy Foolishness'', by Rev. Frank Logue, King of Peace Episcopal Church 〕〔 ''Patron Saint of Puppeteers, Puppeteers UK web-site''〕 ==Biography== A Syrian by origin and reportedly born in Edessa, Simeon lived there, unmarried, with his old mother. At the age of 30 years Simeon took monastic vows in the monastery of Abba Gerasimus in Syria, along with his friend and fellow ascetic John from Edessa. After that Simeon and John spent about 29 years in desert near the Dead Sea practicing asceticism and spiritual exercises.〔 ''Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius's Life and the Late Antique City'', Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the classic, Virginia Tech University〕 Later Simeon was urged by inspiration of God, as some sources say,〔''Eastern Orthodox Calendar, "Pravoslavie.RU", in Russian''〕 to move to Emesa to perform social and charitable services. Reportedly the saint asked the Lord to permit him to serve people in such a way that they should not acknowledge him. At Emesa, through simulating madness and upsetting conventional rules, he was able to bring many citizens to repentance, save many souls from sin and convert them to Christianity. Simeon entered the gate of Emesa (after spending many years in desert) dragging a dead dog. Schoolchildren saw him and shouted (κράζειν) "Hey, a crazy abba...". The next day, a Sunday, he entered the church, extinguished the lights and threw nuts at women. On the way out of the church, Simeon overturned (έστρεψεν) the tables of the pastry chefs (πλακουντάριοι).〔''University of California Press eScholarship Editions, Symeon the Holy Fool, Section 7, Symeon in Emesa, Jesus in Jerusalem''〕 Such playing the fool was subject to insults, abuse and beatings, which Simeon endured with patience. In spite of his seemingly strange behaviour, Simeon the Holy Fool healed many possessed people by his prayer, fed the hungry, preached the Gospel, and helped needy citizens of the town. Many of Simeon’s saintly deeds were done secretly.〔 His ministry also included trying to save a man whose eyes suffered from leucoma. Jesus had previously used saliva and clay to cure a man of blindness, and when the man with eye disease approached Simeon, he anointed the man's eyes with mustard, burning him and aggravating the condition to the extent that he reportedly went blind. Later the eyes were healed by the advice of Simeon, who used such way to explain the man's sins and bring him to correction.
The life of Simeon the Holy Fool was described by Leontios of Neapolis, who symbolically compared his life to that of Jesus, whom the saint tried to imitate in his own way.〔 According to Leontios:
The only person in Emesa with whom Simeon did not play a fool was deacon of the church in Emesa, his friend John. One time Simeon saved John from execution when he was falsely convicted. Shortly before his death Simeon, by the illustration of Leontios of Neapolis said to John:
The saint died about 570 AD and was buried by the city poor in a place where the homeless and strangers were buried. While the body of Saint Simeon was carried, several people heard a wondrous church choir. Only after his death did the secret of his imitative foolishness come to light. Some inhabitants remembered his acts of kindness and reportedly strange and powerful miracles. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Simeon the Holy Fool」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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