Today the Church celebrates the memory of Venerable John and Symeon the Fool for Christ.
Both saints, who were bound by close ties of friendship, came from Edessa in Syria. In AD 518, they visited Jerusalem and, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, where Christ was born and lived, decided to follow the ascetic path. They took refuge in the monastery of Saint Gerasimus of the Jordan, where they remained loyal, with humility and discernment, to the wise elder Nikon.
Later, with the blessing of their spiritual master, they left for a deserted area of the Dead Sea, where they practiced asceticism for forty years. Symeon then returned to Jerusalem, where, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he helped many Jews and heretical Christians to convert to Christianity and confess their faith in Jesus Christ.
He then went to his homeland and devotedly ministered to his suffering and poor fellow human beings. His deep humility and simplicity, as well as some seemingly incomprehensible actions, which he took to hide his virtue, were considered by many as a fool.
Saint Symeon the fool for Christ peacefully passed away in his homeland in old age.
Both saints became illustrious examples of humility and devotion to the will of God.
Source: Church of Cyprus