Simon Srugi

Simon Srugi was born on 27 June 1877 in Nazareth, then under Ottoman rule, into a Palestinian Arab Christian family. Orphaned while still a child, he was placed in the care of the Salesians of Don Bosco, who had begun educational and charitable work in the Holy Land in the later nineteenth century. He was formed in their schools and oratories and discerned a vocation as a Salesian coadjutor brother rather than as a priest. After religious profession in the Society of St. Francis de Sales he was assigned to the Salesian agricultural school and orphanage at Beitgemal (Beit Jimal) in the Judean hills west of Jerusalem, which remained his home for the rest of his life.

At Beitgemal he carried out a range of humble offices. He served as infirmarian and pharmacist for the religious community, the orphan boys, and villagers of the surrounding district. He taught catechism and practical agricultural skills, worked as sacristan, and shared in the manual labor of the farm. During recurrent outbreaks of malaria, typhoid, and other infectious diseases in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, he nursed the sick without distinction of religion, attending Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Those who knew him recalled his patience, his willingness to be called at any hour, and his refusal to spare himself.

Companions and local people testified to a hidden life of prayer, frequent reception of the sacraments, and the poverty and obedience characteristic of the Salesian tradition. He acquired a reputation for holiness already in his lifetime; people sought his counsel and asked his prayers. He remained at his post through the First World War, the end of Ottoman rule, and the establishment of the British Mandate, years marked by hardship, famine, and political tension in Palestine. He never sought transfer or public prominence, and his apostolate remained that of a brother among the poor and the sick.

Srugi died at Beitgemal on 27 November 1943. Popular devotion continued after his death, and a cause for beatification was later introduced. Pope Francis recognized his heroic virtue and a miracle attributed to his intercession. He was beatified on 19 November 2022 in Bethlehem, in a rite presided over by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the name of the Pope. The Catholic Church commemorates him on 27 November. He is remembered especially by the Salesian family and by the Christian communities of the Holy Land as a model of humble service and charity.