Simeon Metaphrastes

Simeon Metaphrastes was born of noble parents at Constantinople in the 10th century. He was well educated, and raised himself by his merit to very high trust under the reigns of Leo the Philosopher and his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus. It is said that being sent, by the emperor to Cyprus, a contrary wind carried his ship to the isle of Paphos. There he met an anchoret, who advised him to write the life of Theoctista, a female saint of Lesbos, and he gradually extended his work so that it included the lives of 120 saints. He died in 976 or 977. His 120 Lives of the Saints are to be found in Latin translations in Surius; the Greek is not extant. See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. s.v.