d. 1737
A new martyr of Samokov in Bulgaria, commemorated by the Church though no detailed life survives.
New Martyr Simeon of Samokov was a Bulgarian Orthodox bishop and martyr commemorated on August 21. The Orthodox Church in America's calendar lists him for that date but preserves no biographical details, recording 'No information available at this time' for his Life; the surviving account of his career is drawn principally from Bulgarian sources.
According to those sources, his secular name was Simeon Popovich, and he became Metropolitan of Samokov on August 28, 1734. Because the city then lacked a large church, his actual residence was at Doupnitsa. During the Russo-Austro-Turkish War of 1735–1739 he is said to have initiated and led a conspiracy against Ottoman rule known as the Uprising of the Hierarchs in Sofia and Samokov, centered on the St. Spas (Holy Savior) Monastery near the village of Lower Lozen.
After the plot was discovered, he was imprisoned and tortured, brought to Sofia, and hanged there on August 21, 1737, behind the Church of Holy Wisdom. He is venerated as the patron saint of Samokov, where the anniversary of his death is kept as the city's feast day.
His birthplace and date of birth are unknown. The anchor record classes him as a New Martyr and gives his era as unknown, while the Bulgarian sources place his death firmly in 1737 and identify him as a hieromartyr, a serving bishop put to death for the faith.
By the Bulgarian accounts, Simeon became Metropolitan of Samokov on August 28, 1734. At that time only the small medieval Belyova Church was in use in Samokov, and for want of a large temple in the city his actual residence was at Doupnitsa.
A handwritten note preserved at Rila Monastery records a visit he made there; it is written in Bulgarian in an elegant hand and bears his signature.
During the Russo-Austro-Turkish War of 1735–1739, with the support of senior clergy including the Serbian-Bulgarian Patriarch Arsenius IV of Pec, Simeon is said to have initiated and led a conspiracy against Ottoman rule, remembered as the Uprising of the Hierarchs in Sofia and Samokov. The center of the plot was the St. Spas Monastery near the village of Lower Lozen in the Lozen Mountains.
The Turkish authorities discovered the conspiracy. In late July and early August 1737, by order of Ali Pasha Kopruluzade, some 350 residents of the Sofia region — citizens, clergy, monks, and villagers — were executed as a preventive reprisal. On July 20 the metropolitan's residence was ransacked and plundered.
Simeon was bound, chained, and imprisoned at Doupnitsa, where the sources say he endured severe torture for twenty-three days. By August 18, with his beard and hair torn out and covered in wounds, he was brought in chains to Sofia and held in the Turkish barracks. After three further days of torture and pressure to convert to Islam, which he refused, he was tried as the chief organizer of the conspiracy and, by Ali Pasha's order, hanged in Sofia on August 21, 1737, behind the Church of Holy Wisdom (Saint Sophia).
Fearing that Simeon would be venerated as a Bulgarian hero and martyr-saint, Ali Pasha is said to have forbidden his burial in Sofia, and his remains were quietly transferred to Samokov.
In 1994 the archaeologist Veselin Hadjiangelov reported the discovery of his remains during excavations at the Belyova Church in Samokov. In the narthex, behind the door to the left, a grave was found containing bones together with a Gospel, a metropolitan's staff, and gold-embroidered episcopal vestments.
Historically Documented: His image was first depicted in a fresco by the Samokov artist Nikola Obrazopisov in the 1870s. The Bulgarian sources state that after 2000 it was established that Metropolitan Simeon had been canonized as a martyr for the faith, and he is counted among nine saints associated with Sofia.
Traditional Accounts: Several accounts describe wonders surrounding his execution — that the gallows broke and the rope snapped before he was finally hanged, and that his body hung for three days until the rope broke again.
Honest stub; OCA gives no life details.