Saint Simeon was born the beginning of the 17th century from a noble family, but in order to escape worldly vanity he left home in and went off beyond the Ural Mountains to far-away Siberia, to a region newly-converted to Christianity. Humbly concealing his noble parentage, he led the life of a pauper who did not have a permanent shelter. He was a good tailor and so, going from village to village, he sewed clothes. He ate at the homes of his customers, being content with very little. Having finished a job, Simeon would leave his hosts while they slept, in order to avoid payment and worldly praise. Above all he loved to spend time in solitude among centuries-old cedars and leafy trees and engaged in another innocent pastime – fishing in the turbulent waters of the Tura River, following the example of the fishermen of Galilee. Simeon was one of those saints of God whose posthumous actions were better known that the events of their life. The saint’s relics were found incorruptible and produced a multitude of miracles by not only healing diverse illnesses, but appearing in dreams with stern injunctions to drunkards on sobriety, powerful denunciations to users of offensive language, promised God’s wrath in the form of plague and famine to those who lived uncleanly, and also expelled schismatics. Saint Simeon is a holy patron of fisherman.
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