Our Righteous Fathers John and Symeon, the Fool for Christ’s Sake.
Saints John and Symeon were from the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia and flourished during the reign of Justin the Younger (565–578). After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem they were moved with a desire to forsake the world; they were tonsured monks by the Abbot Nicon, and soon after left the monastery to struggle together in the wilderness near the Dead Sea. When they had passed a little more than thirty years together in silence and prayer, Symeon, having reached the heights of dispassion, departed for Emesa in Syria, where he passed the rest of his life playing the fool, saving many souls from sin while hiding his sanctity with seemingly senseless behavior. He reposed in 570; by the providence of God, John, who had remained in the wilderness, departed soon after.
Note: The full life of Saints John and Symeon the Fool for Christ’s sake, by Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, with an introduction discussing the class of Saints called Fools for Christ, and a more exact chronology for dating Saint Symeon’s life, was published by our monastery in 2014 and is available here.
The above account is taken from the Great Horologion,
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