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The House of Israel

An Apostle Who Found Rest in
Britain the brutalities of war were at their worst. Atrocities
occurred on both sides but the Romans carried their
vicious perpetrations to such an extent that even Rome
Our Lord was explicit in His directives to the Apostles itself was shocked.
with regard to the spreading of His Gospel message.
He said: "Go first to the lost sheep of the House of Is- The Hebrew word for "zealous" has a similar sound to
rael." As we know from both Scriptural prophecy and that of the name of his home town, being "canna." The
from secular knowledge, these were at that time scat- Greek translation of the word is "zelotes," the name by
tered in their respective clans, along the tortuous trail which he is best known. His enthusiastic preaching of
from the Caspian region of Media to Scripture's "Isles the word made his zealous surname appropriate.
of the West" at the "end of the earth" -- although a few
of them had trekked eastwards as far as the borders of In spite of the volcanic turmoil seething throughout
India: Thomas preached to these fragments. To comply Britain during the Boadicean War, Simon openly de-
with their Master's instructions, therefore, some apos- fied the barbaric Edict of Paulinus, which promoted
tles, at least, must follow lost Israel, whatever the the destruction of anything and anyone Christian, and
length and hazards of the journey. We recall the inde- the most brutal Catis Decianus, the avaricious Roman
fatigable Paul had promised to visit Spain, where a col- Prefect, who had broken the Claudian Treaty with the
ony of Israelites had established itself, centuries Iceni -- initiating the Boadicean War.
before the time of our Lord. Mr. George F. Jowett's
Drama of the Lost Disciples develops this theme in
lucid fashion. Simon decided to conduct his evangelizing campaign in
the eastern part of the island. This section of Britain
was the most sparsely inhabited by the native Britons
Traditions assert that the Apostle Simon the Zealot, and more heavily populated by the Romans. It was far
one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, was beyond the strong protective shield of the Silurian
executed and buried at Caistor, the little market town arms, in the south, and of the powerful northern "York-
on the Lincolnshire Wolds.
shire" Celts.
According to Cardinal Baronfus and Hippolytus, Simon In this dangerous territory Simon was definitely on his
Zelotes, as he is commonly known, or Simon the Ca- own. Undeterred, and with infinite courage, he began
naanite, as he is referred to in the Bible, first arrived in preaching the Christian Gospel right in the heart of the
Britain in A.D. 44 during the Claudian War, from Gaul Roman domain. His fiery sermons brought him speed-
(France).
ily to the attention of Catis Decianus but not before he
had sown the seed of Christ in the hearts of many Brit-
This was the year when a Claudian edict expelled the ains and Romans.
Christian leaders from Rome and this may have been a
factor contributing to Simon's arrival as, it is claimed, The evangelizing mission of Simon was short lived. He
several sought sanctuary in Britain. Evidently his stay was finally arrested under the orders of Catis Decia-
was short and he returned to the continent.
nus. His trial was a mockery. He was condemned to
death and was crucified by the Romans at Caistor and
In the Magna Tabula Glastonia, cited by Bishop there buried, circa 10th May A.D. 61.
Ussher, special mention is made of the return of Si-
mon, among a band of Christian missionaries, in A.D. The day of the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes is offi-
60, the first year of the Boadicean War. This was when cially celebrated, by both the eastern and western
the whole island was convulsed in a deep, burning an- churches on 10th May and so recorded in the Greek
ger against the Romans, which has never been equalled Menology. Cardinal Baronius, in his Annales Ecclesi-
before or after in the long years of conflict between
the two nations. Tacitus states that from A.D. 59 to 62 astical, gives the same date in describing the

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