Simon, Franciszek

Born in the village of Dubovets, Zhytomyr county of Volyn province in 1841 ^[1] . In 1856, from the Novograd-Volynsky noble school he entered the Zhytomyr Roman Catholic Theological Seminary; in 1859 he was transferred to the Catholic Theological Academy in St. Petersburg , where in 1862 he received the degree of academician of theology. He continued his studies in theological sciences at the University of Munich , where in 1864 he defended his doctoral dissertation in theology; On October 9 of that year, he was ordained a priest in Rome . From the beginning of 1865 he taught at the St. Petersburg Academy: he was an inspector of the academy and a teacher of biblical archeology; in 1866-1870 he headed the department of church history and canon law, from 1870 - the department of scripture.

In 1876 he was elevated to the rank of Lutsk-Zhytomyr Cathedral Canon. From 1883 he taught at the Zhytomyr Seminary, where he studied earlier himself, the Greek language and dogmatic theology. In 1883 he was elevated to the rank of cathedral prelate.

In 1884 he returned to St. Petersburg, having been appointed to the post of rector of the Catholic Theological Academy.

In 1890 he was elevated to the rank of prelate of the Papal court; On December 17, 1891, he was appointed Assistant Bishop of the Mogilev Archdiocese under Archbishop Simon Martin Kozlovsky ; March 27, 1892 in the temple of St. Catherine was ordained bishop , as the titular bishop of Zenopolis ^[2] .

In the period 1892-1897, he administered the affairs of the archdiocese at the time when Archbishop Kozlovsky was leaving for medical treatment. He made many trips to remote Catholic parishes, and in 1894 he visited Jerusalem and other holy places in Palestine. Distinguished by determination and firmness, he removed from the parishes the superiors appointed by the authorities, replacing them with priests devoted to the Catholic Church ^[3] . The firm position in protecting the interests of the Catholic Church caused dissatisfaction with the authorities of the Russian Empire, at their request in 1897, Simon was removed from his post and sent to Odessa . However, on August 2, 1897, Simon was appointed bishop of Plock . He stayed in this post until June 1901, when Emperor Nicholas II ordered his name to be deleted from the clergy list and forbidden to worship. ^[3] Pope Leo XIII appointed him titular bishop of Attalia and curator of Polish national parishes in the United States .

In the last years of his life, Simon served as head of the Mariacki Church in Krakow . He died in Krakow on May 26, 1918.

• "Simon" // The Catholic Encyclopedia . T. 4. - M .: Ed. Franciscans, 2011. - Art. 1193-1194
• Almanac of modern Russian statesmen . - SPb. : Type of. Isidore Goldberg, 1897. - S. 558-559.