St. Simon the Zealot

St. Simon the Zealot was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Although he is mentioned in the gospels, he never does anything particularly notable or even gets a line. We don't know for sure what he did after Jesus' death or how he died himself, although his relics are supposedly at the Vatican (but if they don't know where he died, how did they get his relics?).

He's called "the Zealot," and the Zealots were a militant group of Jews who violently resisted the oppression of the Roman Empire in the first century. However, all of the sources I've read find some weak way to explain how St. Simon the Zealot was not involved with that group and that he's called "Zealot" for some other reason. I think this is because people are uncomfortable associating one of the apostles with a violent terrorist group. And understandably so. But at the same time, I don't think being uncomfortable with something is justification for ignoring a viable suggestion. It seems to me that Simon the Zealot may have had ties to the Zealots. There's certainly no concrete evidence that he was not. He was certainly in the right place at the right time to participate in that group. We know so little about him that it seems silly to eliminate that possibility. And who knows, but he may have been a Zealot who renounced his violent ways to follow Christ, and they kept calling him Simon the Zealot to differentiate him from the other Simon, Simon Peter. Anyway, we can never know.


Oddly, St. Simon the Zealot is one of the patron saints of tanners. I have no idea why. Because of the mystery surrounding his post-resurrection ministry, there are a bunch of legends that have sprung up around him. One is that he went to Spain, another is that he went to North Africa, and yet another is that he ended up all the way in Britain. All of these cases would have involved him sailing across some body of water, however, so I've chosen a nautical theme for my outfit. Well, as nautical as I get - striped shirts and my anchor necklace. And my boots thrown in for the tanner thing.