Symon Semeonis


Symon Semeonis was a 14th-century Irish Franciscan friar and author.

Biography

Of Hiberno-Norman origin, Symon is the author of Itinerarium fratrum Symonis Semeonis et Hugonis illuminatoris. In 1323 he and his companion friar, Hugo Illuminator, undertook a pilgrimage from Clonmel in Ireland to Jerusalem. In his manuscript account he describes his experiences and encounters during that journey.
His encounter with a migrant group ‘the descendants of Cain’ outside the town of Heraklion in Crete is probably the earliest surviving description by a Western chronicler of the Romani people in Europe. The account of his experiences in what is now Greece is also one of the earliest written reports of that land to reach Britain.
He received a special passport for Mendicants from the Sultan at a reduced fee. This passport was apparently authenticated by the application of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad's fingerprints. The original manuscript is currently held as MS 407 in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
His surname is now rendered FitzSimon, FitzSimmonds, or Simmonds, and still found in Ireland.

Journey

Fitzsimons describes a detailed itinerary. Starting from Clonmel, he does not say how he left Ireland, but the fact that he enters Wales at Holyhead makes his departing via Dublin a near-certainty; even today, Dublin–Holyhead is an active ferry route. From Clonmel, the road went north to Roscrea, and then Fitzsimons could follow the Slighe Dála east to Abbeyleix, and then northeastwards through Naas, Tallaght and Dublin.
From Holyhead, his party continued eastwards across North Wales. They then followed Watling Street down through England to Canterbury, leaving via Dover — not to Calais, but to Wissant. They continued south across France to Paris, then down the Seine to Châtillon, crossing overland to Beaune and then down the Saône and Rhône to Marseilles.