RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Silvia Aquitana Simeon Metaphrastes
cxiv. 183-208), gives little information. It would seem, however, that Simeon was born at Constantinople, where he studied philosophy and rhetoric and
attained high rank, although the only
Life, Date, office which he is expressly said to have
and rilled was that of logothete. The one
Writings, concrete statement of Psellos, that
Simeon took part in a naval expedition, is, however, incorrect. This error is due to the misunderstanding of a passage in Simeon's revision of Niketas Magister's life of St. Theoktiste, which really states that Niketas, not Simeon, served on the expedition of Himerios against Crete in 902. To the information thus gained Markos Eugenikos (d. 1443) adds that Simeon held a disputation with a Persian (Mohammedan?), and that, toward the end of his life, he became a monk and was buried in the Church of the Mother of God at Hodigi. Beginning with the time of Psellos (eleventh century), manuscripts of Simeon Metaphrastes are numerous, and he is mentioned with great frequency. A monastic record of 1196 ascribes to Simeon the authorship of a life of St. Paul of Mount Latros (d. Dec. 15, 956). It would seem, however, that this life was written soon after the reign of Nikephoros Phokas, or, still more probably, about 991; and it may well be doubted whether it really belongs to Simeon, especially as it is lacking in his collection and is assigned to him by only a single document. At the same time, it must be remembered that Simeon may have written encomiums which he did not include in his hagiography. It is clear, moreover, that the original collection includes the festal sermon of Emperor Constantine on the translation of the Edessa picture of Christ, delivered Aug. 16, 944, and incorporated by Simeon almost without change, thus definitely placing the compilation in the second half of the tenth century. Again, in the life of St. Samson, evidently written by Simeon, a miracle is recorded as happening to the Protospathary Bardas, the close friend of Romanos II., though the event in question may perhaps better be referred to the reign of Romanos' son, Basil (976-1025), while the life contains other allusions to the reign of John Tzimiskes (969-976). The theory of many scholars that the Logothete Simeon Magister to whom is ascribed a Chronicon (ed. CSHB, xxxi. 1S38) is to be identified with Simeon Metaphrastes would prove that the author was a close associate of Romanos I. (920-944), although he wrote in the reign of Nikephoros Phokas (963-969); but the problem of the authorship of the chronicle is too unsettled to permit its use in determining the date of Simeon Metaphrastes. To the Logothete Simeon Magister is also ascribed a collection of canons (ed. MPG, cxiv. 235-292), which form the basis of the commentary of Alexios Aristenos (about 1130); and it is not impossible that this canonist was identical with the Logothete Simeon Magister who, according to the Practica of Eustathios Romanos (lxiv. 1), was an elderly member of the imperial court of justice about 1000, and even with the patrician and first secretary Simeon, who prepared two novella of Nikephoros Phokas in 964 and 967. The Arab historian Yahya ibn Said of Antioch, who continued the annals of Eutychius to 1026, sets the activity of " Simon, sec-
retary and logothete who has written the accounts of the saints and their festivals," in the early part of the reign of Basil II. (976-1025), a statement borne out by the express declaration of Markos Eugenikos that Simeon's official career was during the reigns of Phokas, John (Tzimiskes), and Basil II. Nine letters are also ascribed to Simeon (MPG, cxiv. 227-236), and some others are preserved in manuscript, but none of these contain any data establishing their authorship. He is likewise the putative author of some prayers (MPG, cxiv. 219- 224), iambics on the Eucharist (ib.), verses on Christ and the apostles (unedited), a series of " moral alphabets " (MPG, cxiv. 131-136; penitential prayers in alphabetical form), twenty-four " Ethical Discourses " excerpted from the writings of Basil the Great (MPG, xxxii. 1115-1382), 150 chapters on the fifty orations of Macarius the Egyptian (ib., xxxiv. 841-965; see Macarius, 1), and possibly three necrological poems (ed. L. Sternbach, in Eos, v. 7-21). Only a thorough stylistic study, combined with the establishment of the manuscript transmission, can determine which of these writings belong to Simeon Metaphrastes, whose name was used to give prestige to many works by other hands, not only for edifying literature in general, beginning with the thirteenth century, but also for an anonymous account of the building of St. Sophia (ed. T. Preger, Scriptores originum Conslantinopolitanarum, i. 74-108, Leipsic, 1901). Older scholars ascribed to him a commentary on Luke on the basis of citations in the Catena of Niketas, although these passages are really quoted from his lives of the saints, as well as a work De moribus ecclesice (N. C. Papadopoli, Prcenotationes mystagogicce, Padua, 1697, p. 398), of which nothing more is known.
Simeon Metaphrastes owes his fame to his collection of the legends of the saints, which has won him the deep admiration not only of his own communion, but also of many Roman Catholic theologians. The extent, significance, and value of the work have all been matters of much debate, the His Hagi- cause being the concentration on inography. dividual texts rather than on the collection as a whole. It had already been observed by Leo Allatius (in his De Symeonum scriptis diatriba, Paris, 1664) that a certain complex of lives recurred in many manuscripts, while the transmission of the remaining lives was extremely discrepant. Working along this line, H. Delehaye and A. Ehrhard have carried the problem much nearer solution, the latter scholar determining the genuine lives in the hagiography of Simeon to be 149. These lives are preserved with remarkable uniformity in the various manuscripts, while the rest present the widest divergencies. The most of the genuine lives still need critical editing, and the Greek text of twenty-four is extant as yet only in manuscript. Nevertheless, the material already accessible is sufficient for a correct estimate of Simeon's mode of work, although complete knowledge would involve acquaintance with all his predecessors. This alone would serve to determine the independence of Simeon in the choice of his texts, which in calendrical order diverge sharply from other menologies and are surprisingly close to the Constantinople Synaxarion.
Simeon Metaphrastes Simler