ON ST. ZACHARIAS, PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM.
The Year of Christ 631.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem (St.)
By the author G. H.
[1] The author of the Alexandrian Chronicle, which ends under the reign of Heraclius, places the beginning of the episcopate of St. Zacharias in the seventh year of Phocas, with these words: St. Zacharias, a Priest and Keeper of Sacred Vessels at Constantinople "Isaac also ceases as Patriarch of Jerusalem, and in his place Zacharias, a Priest and Keeper of Sacred Vessels of the Church of Constantinople, is appointed." This seventh year of Phocas corresponds to the year 609 of the Christian era, he is made Patriarch of Jerusalem in the year 609 which is also indicated by the twelfth Indiction prefixed in that Chronicle. Thomas the Patriarch then presided over the Church of Constantinople, who died the following year 610, on the 13th Indiction, on the 20th of March, a Friday, and was committed to the earth on the 22nd of the same month, a Sunday. Sergius succeeded him, created on the 18th of April, a Holy Saturday. These chronological markers indicate the said year 610, with the Lunar and Solar cycle III and the Dominical letter D. Phocas reigned for nearly eight years: he began in the year of Christ 602, in the 6th Indiction, on the 13th of November, a Friday, on which he was crowned by the Patriarch Cyriacus. He was killed by Heraclius in the year 610, in the 14th Indiction, on the 5th of October, a Monday, as these things are observed in the same Alexandrian Chronicle. Theophanes in his Chronography frequently indicates in the appended tables that his years of reign were seven, and assigns to the seventh year the beginning of the Patriarchate of the said Sergius and Zacharias, as well as that of John of Alexandria. Whence in the History of Anastasius the Librarian the following is read: "In the seventh year of the Empire of Phocas, Sergius of Constantinople, Zacharias of Jerusalem, and John of Alexandria are the Bishops." It could, however, have been referred by Theophanes, who begins his years and Indiction from September, to the same year -- the beginning of the episcopate of both Sergius and St. Zacharias -- if the latter was created Patriarch of Jerusalem in September of the year 609 or afterward, or after the month of August? and Sergius, as we said, was created Patriarch of Constantinople in April of the following year 610. But that Theophanes does not observe this reckoning of the times exactly will shortly become apparent. St. Nicephorus, Archbishop of Constantinople, appears to waver and vacillate still more in assigning the years of St. Zacharias and his successor Modestus, when in his brief Chronography on the Bishops of Jerusalem he reckons him the sixtieth, with these words: he did not sit for 22 years before the capture of Jerusalem "60th. Zacharias, before the captivity, 22 years." And in the Historical Breviary he writes that Jerusalem was captured (which will presently be shown to have occurred in the year 614) "while Modestus was at that time governing the Church of Jerusalem." These claims collapse of their own accord from what will be said.
[2] When the Emperor Phocas was killed in the 14th Indiction, on the 5th of October, a Monday, Heraclius was inaugurated as Emperor by the Patriarch Sergius. To him by the Empress Eudocia, Heraclius the Younger, Constantine, was born on the 3rd of May, a Wednesday, in the 15th Indiction, the second year of the reign of Heraclius, the year of Christ 612, and was made Emperor by his father on the 22nd of January of the following year. Thenceforth his name and his father's were ordered to be inscribed on official documents -- as is reported in the Alexandrian Chronicle for the following year 614, in which Jerusalem was captured, in these words: "In the 2nd Indiction, the 4th year of Heraclius, after the 3rd Consulship of Heraclius Augustus, it was captured in June of the year 614 and the 2nd year of the reign of Heraclius the Younger, Constantine. In this year, in the month of June, a calamity befell us that should be accompanied by eternal tears. For besides many other cities of the East, Jerusalem also was captured by the Persians, with many thousands of Clergy, monks, and sacred Virgins killed in it. The Lord's Sepulchre was burned, and the most noble temples of God, and, to say it in a word, all precious things were destroyed. he is led captive to Persia with the Wood of the Holy Cross The venerable Wood of the Cross, together with sacred vessels whose number was innumerable, was carried off by the Persians. The Patriarch Zacharias himself was led away captive. And all these things were done not in a long time but happened within a few days." So far the Alexandrian Chronicle, with an accurate calculation of the year of the Emperors, Indiction 2, and the month of June, that is, the year of Christ 614. Theophanes, omitting the month, places the event in the fifth year of Heraclius, perhaps reckoning from October of the year 610, when Heraclius assumed the empire, to the Kalends of January determining the first year, and the fifth from the same Kalends to June -- so that there are three full years and two barely half-years. The events are narrated thus by the same Theophanes: "In this year the Persians subjugated by force of arms the regions of the Jordan, Palestine, and the holy city, 90,000 Christians killed by the Jews and by the hands of the Jews, as some assert, slaughtered a great many, namely up to ninety thousand. For each one bought Christians according to his own means and immediately killed them. Having captured Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and seized also the precious and life-giving Wood of the Cross from those places, they led away an innumerable multitude of captive people into Persia." So far Theophanes, whom Cedrenus transcribes; Anastasius also translated it into Latin, and Paul the Deacon published it in his Mixed History. All of them expressed the fifth year of Heraclius, when it was only the fourth, using the calculation we have described. For "a multitude of captive people led into Persia," Anastasius translates "much plunder." In Greek, in Theophanes and Cedrenus, it reads: "syn aichmalusia polle," "with much captivity."
[3] St. Nicephorus the Patriarch, in his Historical Breviary, briefly summarizes the matter thus: "But Chosroes, again sending an army against the Romans, placed Sarbarus as its general, Modestus was not then Patriarch of Jerusalem who, having devastated the East, seized the life-giving wood of the salvific Cross in the holy places, while Modestus was at that time governing the Church of Jerusalem." The general Sarbarus is also called Sarbarazas. Nicephorus perhaps falls into error because Modestus, later the successor of St. Zacharias, served as Vicar of the Church of Jerusalem while Zacharias was detained in captivity among the Persians for many years. This is attested by the ancient Acts of St. Anastasius the Persian, praised in the Second Council of Nicaea, which we translated from Greek manuscripts into Latin and published together with other Latin manuscripts on the 22nd of January. In these it is said that St. Anastasius, at number 11, was brought in the holy city to Elias, the most holy Priest of the Holy Resurrection, but with a Vicar of St. Zacharias appointed "who received him as a son predestined by God, and afterward reported about him to Modestus, the most holy Priest and Vicar of the Apostolic See, and had him baptized." In the Greek Acts it reads: "who at that time was the Vicar of the Apostolic throne." St. Anastasius was baptized in the 8th Indiction, in the 10th year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 620. He was Abbot of the monastery of St. Theodosius At that time Modestus was the Archimandrite of the monastery of St. Theodosius, as Petavius observes in the Notes to Nicephorus, page 71 of the royal edition, citing some words of Theophanes which James Goar in his Notes to Theophanes, page 609, reports are found only in the Peiresc codex. It is added that the Church of the Resurrection and another in holy Bethlehem, burned by the Persians, were repaired by him. St. Modestus is inscribed in the Greek Menaea under the 18th of December. Baronius proves from the monk Antiochus, at the year 616, number 7, that the administration of the Church of Jerusalem was entrusted to Modestus after the capture of St. Zacharias.
[4] The same Baronius, having related at the year 614 the lamentation of the same monk Antiochus of Palestine over the removal of the most holy Cross and the captives led away, adds this consolation in number 22: "For," he says, "not as in former times, when under King Zedekiah the desolation of Jerusalem occurred and its restoration was delayed for seventy years, nor as under the Emperor Titus an irreparable devastation was wrought; but after a few years there came about the overpowering defeat of the enemies, St. Zacharias is freed and the return of the captives who were present, as well as of the holy Bishop Zacharias and others, and the solemn restoration of the most holy Cross with triumph, and the complete restoration of the churches, as we shall say in its proper place." So says Baronius, who narrates each event under the various years at which he supposed them to have occurred. But we have shown, in the Life of St. Anastasius the Persian, that he placed the calculations not exactly enough, since he attributed the martyrdom of Anastasius and the death of Chosroes to the year 627, [after the martyrdom of St. Anastasius the Persian and the death of King Chosroes in the year 628] whereas the former is said in the Acts to have been crowned with martyrdom on January 22nd, in the 18th year of the reign of the most religious Heraclius and the 16th of his son Constantine (that is, the year of Christ 628), and he addressed his fellow captives on the eve of his death thus: "Tomorrow I shall end my life; you will be freed after a few days, and the wicked and impious King Chosroes will be killed." It is added that ten days later, on the first of February, Heraclius came into Persia with his army. There exists in the Alexandrian Chronicle a letter of the Emperor Heraclius, in the 1st Indiction, the 18th year of his reign, sent from Persia in the month of April (whose 3rd day is said to have been a Sunday) to Constantinople, and read there on the 15th of May, the very day of Pentecost, in which he reports that King Chosroes was captured by his son Siroes on the 24th of February of the same 1st Indiction, and killed on the 28th. These events can be accommodated to no other year than 628, with Lunar Cycle 2, Solar 21, Dominical Letters BC, in which Easter was celebrated on the 27th of March, and consequently Pentecost on the 15th of May. wrongly attributed by Theophanes to the year 627 Theophanes wrote accurately about the conspiracy of the princes against Chosroes and his death, but having assigned everything together to the 17th year of Heraclius, he attributed what was done over two winters to one and the same year, and then narrated under the 18th year of Heraclius only what happened in the summer of that year. Theophanes is followed by Cedrenus, Anastasius, Paul the Deacon, and after other more recent writers, by Baronius. So much for the reckoning of the time. Concerning the freed St. Zacharias, the same Theophanes reports: "Then Siroes, having sent letters to Heraclius, announces the death of the execrable Chosroes; and having made a peace with him more lasting than bronze and iron, he restored the Christians held in custody and captive throughout all of Persia, together with the Patriarch Zacharias and the venerable and life-giving Wood, taken from Jerusalem when they were formerly captured by Sarbarus. Heraclius in turn sent all captive Persians held among Christians back to Persia, freed, and returned to Constantinople with great triumph." All of which things took place in the year 628, the 18th year of Heraclius.
[5] "In the 19th year of Heraclius," says Theophanes, "at the beginning of spring, the Emperor Heraclius, taking the venerable and life-giving Wood with him, departing from the royal city, proceeded to Jerusalem to give thanks to God... Then, having entered Jerusalem, he is restored to his See in the year 629, with the Cross of Christ with the Patriarch Zacharias restored to his See and the venerable and life-giving Wood returned to its place, he rendered due thanks to God." The same is read in Cedrenus, Zonaras, Anastasius, Paul the Deacon, and others. That year of Christ was 629. Heraclius then, in the 24th year of his reign, the year of Christ 634, when Sophronius was presiding over the Patriarchal Church of Jerusalem, as if affairs were already desperate, afterward carried to Constantinople in the year 634 having left Syria and taken with him the venerable Wood of the life-giving Cross from Jerusalem, withdrew to Constantinople, as the same Theophanes and after him others write for that year. But St. Nicephorus, in his Historical Breviary, with the times confused, reports the following under the 2nd Indiction, that is, the year 629: "Heraclius himself, carrying with him the life-giving Wood, still sealed as it was when first captured, proceeded to Jerusalem and showed it to the Patriarch Modestus and his Clergy... After this, having erected the Cross there, the Emperor immediately sent it to Constantinople. The Patriarch Sergius, from the Blachernae (which is a temple of the Mother of God), processed to meet it with litanies, and conducting it to the great church, erected it there. All these things occurred in the second Indiction." So far St. Nicephorus, whom Suidas follows under the word "Heraclius." But Modestus at that time was only Vicar; then, after the death of St. Zacharias, ordained Patriarch by command of the Emperor Heraclius, he presided for two years, which Theophanes places in the 22nd year and following of the reign of Heraclius, the year of Christ 632 and following. But Nicephorus in his brief Chronography on the Bishops of Jerusalem assigns only one year to Modestus, he sat for 22 years and to St. Zacharias 22, in agreement with Theophanes, which we judge should be counted from the year of Christ 609 to the year 631.
[6] The Greeks, in the Menaea and in the Lives of the Saints by Maximus of Cythera, celebrate the birthday of St. Zacharias on the 21st of February with these words: he is venerated on February 21 "On the same day, St. Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, rests in peace." In the Menaea this distich is added:
"Holy are you even in death, O Zacharias, Zacharias, Bishop of the blessed land."