St. Simon

Location: Chapel

Donor/ Lender: Ahmanson

Simon was a fisherman and because of this, the shellfish in this portrait carries a blue dye in the narrow portion. This blue dye was used to color priest robes. It took 2000 shellfish to color one robe. He was also martyred, then was sawn in pieces.

The byname means "the zealous one".
Simon suffered martyrdom in Persia along with Thaddaeus.
Attribute: the saw, referring to his death: he is said to have been sawn to death. Occasionally he is portrayed with a fish on a book (referring to him as a fisher of men and evangelist). The 28th of October is a commemoration of his martyrdom.

Pictured here:
Simon is portrayed with his attribute: a saw and in two of the panels, a fish.
Always a purple snail is seen. This attribute refers to the fact that Simon's father was a clothier who was known for making a very costly purple dye.