He is associated with the development of the Carmelite Order in England and with the now restored Carmelite shrine of Aylesford, on the Medway near Maidstone in Kent. His life is obscure before the year 1247; he seems to have gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and there met some Carmelites who at that time were a semi-hermit group, based on their origins on the mountain of Carmel in the Holy Land. St. Simon joined them, but returned to Europe when the Crusades made conditions too difficult and was elected superior-general of the Order at London in 1254. The Carmelites were by then changing their character from a contemplative hermit Order to one of urban-based friars, like the newly former Franciscans and Dominicans. They established houses in University towns, and St. Simon was responsible for several foundations in England, Ireland and Spain. He is associated with the vision of Our Lady assuring her particular protection to those who wore the brown scapular (shoulder vestment) of the Order. The practice of wearing the scapular, associated with the Third (i.e. lay) Order of Carmelites, became extremely popular, though its origins with St. Simon himself is actually rather doubtful. He died in Bordeaux in 1265, and although he was never formally canonised the celebration of his feast was approved in 1564. When the Aylesford shrine was restored in recent years, his remains were brought back from France and enshrined there in 1951.