Simeon served as the Bishop of Polotsk before being elected as the metropolitan bishop by the council of bishops. He was later confirmed by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1481.[1][2] Evidence of confirmation of Simeon according to Hrushevsky is mentioned in a palinode of Zachary Kopystensky.[2] With this confirmation also was restored so called "modus vivendi".[2]
The tenure of Simeon was challenged by the anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiments of the King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon and the 1482 plundering of Kiev by the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray,[1] an ally of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow.
^The title is also known as the Metropolis of Kiev, Halych and all Rus' or Metropolis of Kyiv, Halychyna, and All-Rus'. The name "Galicia" is a Latinized form of Halych, one of several regional principalities of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'.