Saint Zeno of Cæsarea
القدّيس زينون القيصرية
The Syrian holy man commemorated on the thirtieth of January is a certain Saint Zeno, a patron of postal workers and message-bearers. A native of Pontus, he lived in Cappadocia and was the disciple to the great Saint Basil there, before he became a hermit on Mons Silpius overlooking the great Syrian city of Antioch. He is remembered with the Antiochian saints, and his Life is attested in the Religious History of Blessed Theodoret of Kyrrhos.
Saint Zeno [Gk. Ζήνων, Ar. Zaynûn زينون] was a fair, strong and nimble youth, born to a wealthy Pontian family in the middle of the fourth century. He served in the military under Emperor Valens, as a tachydrome – one of the people charged with bearing imperial edicts and rescripts over the public post. The position which Zeno occupied was one of significant respect and prestige: to be such a courier was to bear the implicit trust of the Emperor, because the messages needed to arrive swiftly, secretly and safely to where they were sent – and in antiquity, this was far from a guarantee. The persons selected to be tachydromes on the public post had to be both physically fit and morally incorruptible, worthy of the personal confidence of the Emperor.
After the death of Emperor Valens, Zeno retired from the service, did off his military honours and retired to Antioch. He took refuge in a tomb on Mons Silpius, and lived there alone. He ate only bread and water, clad himself in rags and kept no possessions for himself – not even a bed or a lamp or a book. He was given one loaf of bread every two days by a single trusted acquaintance who delivered it to the tomb. He also went himself to a well in the city to draw water and haul it up the slopes of Mons Silpius. At one time a man who saw him thus heavy-laden offered to help him carry the water jars. Saint Zeno refused at first, saying he could not bear to drink water that had been drawn and carried by someone else. But the man insisted on helping him. No sooner had they set foot inside the tomb but Zeno poured out the water and went back himself to the well to refill them.
Theodoret himself visited Zeno at one time. He saw him at the well and asked if he knew of ‘the wonderful Zeno’, a monk who lived in a tomb on the mountain. Saint Zeno modestly said he knew of no monk by that name. Theodoret suspected it was indeed he, though, and together with some friends of his followed him as he bore the water back to his cell. Zeno had prepared for Theodoret and his friends some simple bedding of straw so that they could sit comfortably, and discussed philosophy with them at length. The young friends asked Zeno for his blessing, but the holy man was most reluctant to give it. Not, Theodoret stresses, because he was stingy with anything he had, whether spiritually or physically, but because he felt himself to be unworthy: a ‘civilian’ in Church life rather than a ‘soldier’. (Theodoret was then a reader.) At last Zeno gave his blessing for he would deny them nothing, but then fervently asked the pardon of God for his presumption and audacity. Theodoret uses this story to stress Saint Zeno’s humility.
Though he was a hermit living in the mountain, he would come down from his cell every Sunday to hear the Divine Liturgy and partake in the Eucharist together with the mass of the laity. After taking the Divine Gifts he walked back up the mountain to his cell. He had no door nor lock, for he had nothing but the heaps of hay in his cell, and nothing of worth to steal in any event – and there was also the small matter of his living in a remote tomb on the side of a mountain where a thief would have to be crazy to dare to venture. Saint Zeno loved books, though he owned none himself. He was forever borrowing them from his friends, reading one fully and returning it before borrowing another.
Saint Zeno survived a massacre of holy men and women by impious Isaurian raiders in 404, and protected some within his cell, by means of prayer to God. The Isaurians had shot and killed many holy men and women who lived on Mons Silpius, but they passed by his tomb undetected. Saint Zeno sent up a prayer to God for protection of the holy men and women of the mount; and God sent three messengers to guard the doorway to Saint Zeno’s cell, who did invisible battle with the Isaurians and distracted them away from the entrance.
Saint Zeno still had material possessions which he was keeping in trust for his young kinsmen, and he deeply agonised over the fact that it remained in his possession and had not sold it off and distributed it to the poor, as Christ had taught. When he knew his end to be growing near and his kinsmen had taken their part of the inheritance themselves, he took his part and sold it to an acquaintance, and distributed as much of it as he could to the poor of Antioch. The remainder he entrusted, with prayers, to Patriarch Alexandros I of Antioch, the same who ended the schism between Saint Meletios and the followers of Paulinus. He instructed the bishop to disburse that money ‘according to God’s purpose’, giving to the bishop the same trust the tachydrome himself had been given by a worldly emperor long before.
Saint Zeno reposed in the Lord soon afterward. In the words of Theodoret, he ‘departed like some Olympic victor from the place of contest, receiving praise not only from men but also from the angels.’ Holy hermit Zeno, trustworthy bearer of letters and ascetic athlete, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion for Saint Zeno, Tone 3:
Through asceticism, holy Father, you received the grace of the Divine Spirit,
Manifesting a divine life of the graces,
And you became a healer of the Saviour,
Having been made worthy of His brilliance.
Venerable Zeno, entreat Christ our God, to grant unto us the great mercy.
Mons Silpius, Antioch
No comments:
Post a Comment