Simon the Zealot
Simon is mentioned as an Apostle of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels but nothing else is known for certain of him. That has not stopped historians and story-tellers from endless speculation about the man.
Firstly, the nickname “the Zealot” has been taken to imply that he was a member of a violent anti-Roman sect that operated in the first century. Some say the group was active either too early or too late to have included Simon while others say that the name simply means that he was “zealous” or pious. Secondly, it is often supposed that he was a Canaanite but others insist that he was from the town of Cana, and thus the lucky bridegroom at the wedding where Jesus performed his first miracle of turning water into wine.
Hagiographers have linked his evangelizing mission with that of Jude/Thaddeus and say that they preached in Egypt, Syria, and Persia where Simon was martyred by being sawn in half. (Thus he is often pictured holding a saw.) Others place Simon’s work in North Africa and some claim that he died in Roman Britain. Both Simon and Thaddeus are said to be buried in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He is the patron saint of tanners.
Ezra Pound’s poem “The Ballad of the Goodly Fere” is an account of the life of Christ as told by Simon. In it, Simon speaks in a rough dialect and praises Jesus for his manliness.
Oh we drank his “Hale” in the good red wine
When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere
But a man o’ men was he.
I ha’ seen him drive a hundred men
Wi’ a bundle o’ cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house
For their pawn and treasury.
They’ll no’ get him a’ in a book I think
Though they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly Fere
But aye loved the open sea.