Saint Simon of Jerusalem was chosen as the successor to Saint James the Younger and faced persecution and martyrdom during Emperor Trajan's reign due to his Christian faith and Davidic lineage.
Following the martyrdom of Saint James the Younger, the first bishop of Jerusalem, around the year 62, Simon was selected by the remaining disciples of Jesus to succeed him. Eusebius of Caesarea, known as the father of church history, notes this in his "Ecclesiastical History." Saint Simon, the second bishop of Jerusalem and a successor to the Apostle James the Less, was a descendant of David, likely the son of Cleopas, one of the two disciples who encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, making him a relative of Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and consequently of Jesus himself.
