One of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ was called Simon the Zealot. He was the son from the first marriage of Joseph, the wife of Mary the Mother of God, that is, he was the half-brother of Jesus. The nickname Kananit from Aramaic is translated as "zealot". The Apostle Luke in his writings calls the Apostle Simon not a Canaanite, but in Greek - Zealot, which means the same thing.
The first miracle of Jesus Christ
The Gospel of John tells that during the marriage ceremony of his half-brother Simon, Jesus Christ performed his first miracle, namely, he turned water into wine. Seeing this, the newly made bridegroom believed in his brother Jesus Christ and became his zealous follower and disciple (apostle). In the Christian faith, Simon the Zealot is considered the patron saint of newlyweds and marriage. For 2000 years, during the Christian wedding ceremony, the priest recites the lines from the Gospel, telling about the creation of this miracle by God.
Travel the world
According to the biblical scriptures, afterThe Savior ascended to heaven, the Apostle Simon the Zealot, like all the disciples of Christ, received a divine gift that descended on him in the form of a fiery tongue. Since then, he began to preach the teachings of his brother Jesus Christ in various countries: in Judea, Edessa, Armenia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Britain, Spain and others. You can learn about this from the ancient traditions of these peoples.
The news of the resurrection of Christ reaches the Black Sea coast
20 years after the resurrection of Christ, three of his apostles - Andrew the First-Called, Matthew and Simon the Zealot - went to the Iberian lands, and then to the mountains of present-day Ossetia and Abkhazia. In the city of Sevast (Sukhumi), their paths parted. The Apostle Simon the Zealot settled in a cave located in a deep gorge of a mountain river, where he descended with a rope, and Andrei went further along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Each of them preached the teachings of Christ, spoke about his life, miracles performed, martyrdom and resurrection, and sought to convert local residents to Christianity.
New Athos
The area where Simon the Zealot lived in those days was in the vicinity of the modern resort of New Athos. Here the apostle, by the power bestowed upon him by heaven, performed miracles and signs, and thanks to this he was able to find followers and convert them to Christianity. In Abkhazia in those distant times, a pagan rite operated, according to which not only animals, but also innocent babies were brought to the sacrificial altar. Cannibalism was also common among the locals. Through the effortsApostle Simon, the locals realized how inhuman, cruel and wild these ancient customs were, and soon abandoned them. Simon the Canaanite also practiced medicine and healed the sick with the power of his prayer and simple touches. This, like nothing else, instilled the faith of the local population in him and his teachings. As a result, more pagans asked the Zealot to baptize them and accepted the Christian faith.
Persecution and martyrdom
Georgian king Aderky - an ardent supporter of the pagan faith - began persecution against the apostle and his followers. As a result, Simon the Zealot was caught and, after much torture, was brutally killed. Some testimonies mention that he was crucified on a cross, in others he was sawn alive with a saw. His lifeless body was buried by his disciples near the cave in which he spent the last years of his life. After that, many needy, sick and destitute people came to his grave to pray for help and salvation, and the number of believers in Christ grew every day.
Temple dedicated to the Apostle Simon the Zealot
After more than 800 years, Christian pilgrims came to the tomb of the Apostle from the Greek city of Athos. They erected a white temple from local limestone rocks next to the tomb of the Zealot, and the nearby settlement has since become known as New Athos. In the 11th-12th centuries Abkhazia became a Christian state. Since then, monasteries, temples and churches began to be erected throughout the territory of Abkhazia. Later it was attacked by the Arabs: most of the Christiantemples, including Simono-Kananitsky, were destroyed, and the people, under the duress of the Arab invaders, converted to Islam.
In the 19th century, after the entry of Abkhazia into the Russian Empire, Christianity began to spread again in these places and this name, Simon the Zealot, was increasingly mentioned. The temple, once dedicated to him, was restored, and nearby the construction of the New Athos Simono-Kananitsky monastery began, which turned into a major spiritual and educational Orthodox center on the entire Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. The cathedral of the same name, which is located in the center of the monastery complex, is a fine example of Orthodox architecture of the late 19th century. Its interior walls are painted with beautiful icons by skilled craftsmen, and the bell tower's musical chimes were donated to the cathedral by Russian Emperor Alexander III.
Conclusion
Today this place, located near the city of New Athos in Abkhazia, is one of the main attractions on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. This spiritual and historical complex includes a monastery, a temple and a cave (the grotto of the Apostle Simon), in which Simon the Zealot, one of the first disciples of Jesus Christ, lived before his martyrdom. Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world come for blessings and in the hope of recovery at his grave.
