# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/simon-magus
# Generated: 2026-09-01T12:43:18.026Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/simon-magus"
name: "Simon Magus"
slug: "simon-magus"
description: "A Samaritan magician who tried to purchase apostolic power with money — and whose name became the eternal word for that sin. Simon Magus surfaces in Acts as a baptised convert who clashed with Peter, then reappears in later Christian writing as a levitating sorcerer and, to some, the first Gnostic heretic."
tagline: "Religious figure who confronted Peter"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Basilica_Saint-Sernin_-_Simon_Magus.jpg"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Religious Figures"
  slug: "religious-figures"
profileType:
  name: "Religious Figure"
  slug: "religious-figure"
birthDate: "50"
deathDate: "65"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           56.03
  momentum:             0
  historical:           24.309416
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Religious Figures"
    slug: "religious-figures"
  - name: "Religious Figure"
    slug: "religious-figure"
  - name: "Religion"
    slug: "religion"
  - name: "Ancient History"
    slug: "ancient-history"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q294795"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Simon%20Magus"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%89"
    title: "سمعان المجوسى"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%96%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BD-%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%9E%D0%BD%D1%96%D0%BA"
    title: "Сімон-чараўнік"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%92%D0%BB%D1%8A%D1%85%D0%B2%D0%B0"
    title: "Симон Влъхва"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3_el_Mag"
    title: "Simó el Mag"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0imon_M%C3%A1g"
    title: "Šimon Mág"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_y_Swynwr"
    title: "Simon y Swynwr"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus"
    title: "Simon Magus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CE%AF%CE%BC%CF%89%CE%BD_%CE%BF_%CE%9C%CE%AC%CE%B3%CE%BF%CF%82"
    title: "Σίμων ο Μάγος"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus"
    title: "Simon Magus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_el_Mago"
    title: "Simón el Mago"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%B5id_Siimon"
    title: "Nõid Siimon"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%86_%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B3%DB%8C"
    title: "شمعون مجوسی"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus"
    title: "Simon Magus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://frp.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_lo_Mago"
    title: "Simon lo Mago"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_le_Magicien"
    title: "Simon le Magicien"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9F_%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%9D"
    title: "שמעון הקוסם"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0imun_%C4%8Carobnjak"
    title: "Šimun Čarobnjak"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_m%C3%A1gus"
    title: "Simon mágus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%8D%D5%AB%D5%B4%D5%B8%D5%B6_%D5%84%D5%B8%D5%A3"
    title: "Սիմոն Մոգ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_sang_Penyihir"
    title: "Simon sang Penyihir"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Mago"
    title: "Simone Mago"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%82%B0%E3%82%B9"
    title: "シモン・マグス"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simon_Magus"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Mago"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Szymon_Mag"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_o_Mago"
    title: "Simón o Mago"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A"
    title: "سمعان المجوسي"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Simon was a 1st-century religious figure in Samaria, a magus who converted to Christianity and received baptism from Philip the Evangelist. His defining moment came when he attempted to buy the power of the Apostles from Peter — the transaction that gave the church the term "simony." By the 2nd century, writers like Justin Martyr reported that nearly all Samaritans followed Simon of Gitta, and church heresiologists began casting him as the founder of Gnosticism and leader of the Simonians, a claim some modern scholars accept and others dispute. Traditions grew: apocryphal texts transformed him into a formidable sorcerer capable of levitation and flight, "the Bad Samaritan," accused of lawlessness. Works attributed to him or his followers — the Great Declaration, The Four Quarters of the World, The Sermons of the Refuter — are now lost, leaving only the shadow of a man whose reach for power made his name a synonym for corruption.