Saints Zēnobios and Zēnobia of CiliciaThe thirtieth of October is also the feast-day of the dear sibling-martyrs Saints Zēnobios and Zēnobia of Cilicia. Continuing in our theme these two weeks of paired saints – familial or spousal – in the Antiochian Church, Zēnobios and Zēnobia were faithful Christians who lived in third-century Asia Minor and suffered during the persecutions of Diocletian.
Zēnobios [Gk. Ζηνόβιος, L. Zenobius, Ar. Zînûbiyyûs زينوبيوس] and Zēnobia [Gk. Ζηνοβία, L. Zenobia, Ar. Zînûbiyyâ زينوبيا] were born in the coastal Cilician town of Ægeæ. Their parents were Christians. Their father’s name is mentioned in early sources as Zēnodotos, and their mother’s as Thekla. Both children were raised in the Church and early on developed a love of the Liturgy and a desire to serve Christ. They were intensively generous even with their parents’ money, and they gave anything they had or were given to the poor; when their parents died they distributed their entire estate among the needy.
Zēnobios was given by God the gift of healing even from childhood, and he used this gift in Christ’s name for any who were hurt or ill, and would charge nothing for the service; and Zēnobia helped him in his labours, caring in particular for widows and young girls. Even pagans, it was said, came to him for healing. One man came from as far away as India, with his wife who was suffering from a painful tumour in her breast. Zēnobios healed her, and their whole family were baptised Christians and helped spread the faith when they returned to India. At length, when the old bishop of Ægeæ reposed and a new one was sought, Zēnobios’s name was mentioned by several who had heard of or who had benefitted from his healing. He was elected as bishop in Ægeæ.
When they were both adults in their prime – probably in the year 285 – after Diocletian became Emperor in Rome, he appointed as governor of Cilicia a cruel and tyrannical præfect named Lysias, who detested Christians and persecuted them with particular zeal. Naturally the name of Zēnobios could not be hidden from him, and so he had the young bishop arrested and hauled before him. At once Lysias ordered that the saint offer sacrifice to the idols of the pagan gods, and the bishop refused. Lysias ordered that Saint Zēnobios be taken and beaten ‘until Christ comes to help him’.
When Zēnobia heard of this, she rushed to her brother and proclaimed herself to be a Christian as well. For this she too was given over to the executioners for torture. The brother and sister were bound and placed on beds of red-hot iron – but the iron was cooled by their blood. They were then thrown into vats of boiling pitch, but upon contact with the martyrs the pitch was converted into cool, fresh water. Lysias, whose attempts at torture were stymied by the sibling-martyrs’ Divinely-granted endurance, had the two of them beheaded. Thus Zēnobios and Zēnobia attained the victory, and were given the laurels of martyrdom in Christ. After their martyrdom, a certain Christian priest named Hermogenēs came to retrieve their relics, and they were given a decent burial in the churchyard at Ægeæ.
These saints were celebrated throughout the Eastern Church as a result of the efforts of Saint Symeōn Metaphrastēs in collecting the lives of local martyrs and saints. However, they were virtually unknown in the Western church until after the Protestant Reformation. The mention of the saints was discovered in a redaction of the Martyrology of the ninth-century French Benedictine monk Usuard, and by 1586 Saints Zēnobios and Zēnobia were included in the Roman Martyrology. Holy martyrs Zēnobios and Zēnobia, selfless healers and confessors of Christ before the pagans, pray unto Him who loves mankind that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion to Saints Zēnobios and Zēnobia, Tone 4:
As brother and sister united in godliness
Together you struggled in contest, Zēnobios and Zēnobia.
You received incorruptible crowns
And unending glory
And shine forth with the grace of healing upon those in the world.
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