Simon of the Kiev Caves, bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal, holy hierarch, venerable (Near Caves)
Dates of commemoration
(Church calendar - Feb 27) Synaxis of all Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves (movable feast on the 2nd Sunday of the Great Lent)
(Church calendar - Aug 28) Synaxis of all saints of Nizhny Novgorod (movable feast on the Sunday after August 26th)
Life
Saint Simon, Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal was an author of the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON, and he became a monk at the Monastery of the Caves, sometime in the second half of the twelfth century.
In the year 1206 he was appointed igumen of the Vladimir Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos, and in 1214, at the wish of Prince George Vsevolodovich (+ 1238), he was made the first bishop of Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma and Suzdal.
In 1218 he consecrated a church at the Nativity monastery, and in the year 1225, a cathedral church at Suzdal. The Great Prince deeply respected Saint Simon and was prepared to establish a new bishop’s See at Suzdal for his friend, the monk Polycarp of the Kiev Caves monastery, who sought after spiritual glory. Saint Simon, seeing that Polycarp was not yet ready to assume such an office, talked the Great Prince out of his idea, and he wrote a deeply moving letter to Polycarp, in which he offered his friend advice on overcoming his spiritual shortcomings. Saint Simon’s own inner life, character, and virtue are also revealed in the epistle.
Saint Simon was known as a learned teacher, and his epistle to Polycarp was placed at the beginning of the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON. On the eve of his repose in 1226, the saint received the schema.
Initially his body was buried at Vladimir, but later, in accordance with the saint’s last wishes, his body was transferred to the Kiev Caves Lavra, where it rests in the Antoniev Caves.
Source:
Holy relic type
unless specified otherwise below, "holy relic" means a fragment of a bone of the saint
1. Holy relic
2. Holy relic
3. Holy relic
Location of the holy relic in the Cathedral:
1. North kliros, reliquary #5
2. Relics cabinet in the Altar sacristy, reliquary #9
3. South kliros, reliquary #14 - gilded sliver cross
Troparion
Тропарь святителя Симона, чудотворца Печерского, епископа Владимирского и Суздальского, в Киеве, в Ближних пещерах почивающего
глас 1
Житий преподобных отец Печерских списателю известный,/ святителю Христов Симоне всеблаженне,/ молися прилежно с ними Христу Богу,/ да управит в мире живот наш/и в книги животныя да напишет ны,/ спасая души наша.
Kontakion
Кондак святителя Симона, чудотворца Печерского, епископа Владимирского и Суздальского
глас 2
Святительства одеждою,/ аще и достойне одеялся еси,/ обаче тем не возносяся,/ желал еси паче сметием пред враты Лавры Печерския поврещися,/ смиренномудре Симоне./ Темже, не аки сметие, врат вне,/ но, яко сокровище, внутрь святыя пещеры положен быти сподобился еси,/ и ныне на Небеси Господеви предстоя,/ молися о нас, чтущих тя.