Simon Zelotes was one of the original twelve disciples of Christ. His first visit to Britain was reportedly in the year 44 A.D. during the Claudian War. Evidently his stay was short at this time and he returned to the continent.

In 60 A.D. Simon was recruited by Joseph of Arimathea in Gaul at the beginning of the Boudicean War. Simon arrived in Britain during the first year of the Boudicean War (60 A.D.) when the whole island was convulsed in a deep, burning anger against the Romans.

It is recorded that Simon was unusually bold and fearless, as his name implies. In spite of the turmoil seething through Britain during the Boudicean War, Simon openly defied the Edict of Paulinus, and the brutal Catus Decianus, to destroy anything and anyone Christian.

Simon decided to conduct his work in the eastern part of the Island. This section of Britain was the most sparsely inhabited by the native Britons and consequently more heavily populated by the Romans. He was far beyond the strong protective shield of the Silurian arms in the south and the powerful northern Yorkshire Celts. In this dangerous territory Simon Zelotes was definitely on his own.

Writes George F. Jowett: ‘Undeterred with infinite courage, he began preaching the Christian Gospel right in the heart of the Roman domain. His fiery sermons brought him speedily to the attention of Catus Decianus, but not before he had sown the seed of Christ in the hearts of Britons and many Romans who, despite the unremitting hatred of Decianus for all that was Christian, held the secret of the truth locked in their hearts’ (Drama of The Lost Disciples, p. 159)

The evangelizing mission of Simon was short-lived. He was finally arrested under the orders of Catus Decianus. As usual his trial was a mockery. He was condemned to death and was crucified by the Romans at Caistor, Lincolnshire, and buried there on 10 May, 61 A.D.

The day of Simon's martyrdom is officially celebrated by the eastern and western church (Catholic) on May 10th and so recorded in the Greek Menology, which has proven to be highly accurate. Cardinal Baronius, in his Annales Ecclesiastici, gives the same date in describing the martyrdom and burial of Simon Zelotes in Britain.

The year before the Boudicean War broke out, and the two years of its course, are the darkest, most bloodstained years in British history. Yet, at the same time, they are epic years in the annals of the early Church of God in Britain, resplendent with noble sacrifice and heroic deeds which outmatched the terror and stark tragedy those years contained. To this notable period the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes added a glimmer of light to an otherwise dark and dreadful time.

Of interest to Americans is the fact that Simon Zelotes perished near to the ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln, the great Christian American President. His ancestors migrated from England in the first waves of English colonists to settle in Virginia. Eighteen hundred years after the martyrdom of Simon in the land of the Lincolns, Abraham Lincoln became a martyr for his humane Christian principles in America, the new land of the descendants of the Israelites of old.