Acta Sanctorum

Zosimus the Cilician

24 January · vita

ON ST. ZOSIMUS THE CILICIAN, BISHOP OF BABYLON IN EGYPT.

Sixth century.

Preface

Zosimus the Cilician, Bishop of Babylon in Egypt (St.)

Several anchorites of great name called Zosimus or Zosimas lived in the sixth century. Of these, St. Zosimas or Zosimus, who attended to the burial of St. Mary of Egypt, is recorded in the Latin and Greek calendars on April 4. Various saints named Zosimus or Zosimas. Whether he is rightly distinguished by Nicephorus in book 17, chapter 5, from the Zosimas who was the companion of John, the anchorite of Chuziba, formerly Bishop of Caesarea, who predicted the earthquake of Antioch as recorded by Evagrius in book 4, chapter 7, and Nicephorus in the same chapter 4, we shall inquire there. Another flourished in Lycia, of whom the Emperor Justinian says the following in the New Constitutions, Collection 1, Title 4, chapter 2: In Lycia, Zosimus, beloved of God, a man most famous in his way of life, and approaching the hundred and twentieth year of his age, yet powerful both in the virtues of the soul and the works of the body: such great grace of God flourishes in him. Another Zosimus, a Cilician, different from these, is mentioned by John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, or book 10 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapters 123 and 124. We suspect that the Greeks on this day in the Menaion and in Maximus Cythereus treat of this one, in these words: The feast of Zosimus the Cilician. On the same day, St. Zosimus rested in peace.

Who shall speak of your long labors, Zosimas? And who of the crowns for your labors given to you at death?

Whether the same Moschus treats of the same Cilician Zosimus in chapter 166 is not sufficiently clear. But so that a full knowledge of the Zosimi may be had, we append that chapter.

LIFE

from the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus.

Zosimus the Cilician, Bishop of Babylon in Egypt (St.)

[1] We went to Abbot Zosimus the Cilician on Mount Sinai, where he was dwelling: for the old man had refused the episcopate and had returned to his cell. He was a man of great abstinence; and he narrated to us, saying: When I was younger, I left Sinai and went to Ammoniaca, to dwell there, and I found there an old man clothed in a tunic of linen. Zosimus goes into the desert: The old man, as soon as he saw me, before I greeted him, said to me: Why have you come here, Zosimus? He is recognized and learns future things from a holy old man. Go, for you cannot sit here. Thinking that he had recognized me, I prostrated myself before him, saying: Do me the kindness, Father, how do you know me? The old man said to me: Two days ago someone appeared to me, saying: Behold, a certain monk named Zosimus will come to you; do not permit him to remain here: for I wish to entrust to him the Church of Babylon, which is in Egypt. The old man fell silent, and having dismissed me, went from me about a stone's throw. And when he had spent two hours in prayer, he came to me, and kissing my face, said to me: Dearest son, welcome; for God has led you here, that you may commit my body to the earth. I said to him: How many years have you been in this place, whom he buries: Abba? He said to me: I am completing forty-five years. And his face appeared to me like fire; and he said to me: Peace to you, my son, and pray for me. And saying these things, he composed himself and fell asleep. And I, having dug the earth, buried him, and after two days I departed, glorifying God.

[2] The old man also narrated this to us, saying: Twenty-two years ago I went up to Porphyrites, wishing to dwell there; He goes to another desert. and I took my disciple John with me. When therefore we had come there, we found two anchorites, and we dwelt near them. One of them was a Galatian named Paul; the other a Melitenian named Theodore, who had been from the monastery of Abbot Euthymius. They wore tunics made of buffalo skins. I stayed there for nearly two years, and we were about two stadia distant from each other.

[3] On a certain day, while my disciple John was sitting, a serpent struck him, His disciple is raised by two hermits. and he immediately died, pouring blood from every part of his body. Being therefore in great distress, I went to the anchorites: who, as soon as they saw me troubled and afflicted, before I said anything to them, said to me: What is the matter, Abba Zosimus? Has your Brother died? I said to them: Indeed he has died. Coming therefore with me and seeing him lying on the ground, they said to me: Do not be grieved, Abba Zosimus; the divine assistance is at hand. And calling the Brother, they said: Brother John, arise, for the old man has need of you. And immediately the Brother rose from the ground. And seeking the beast and finding it, they seized it and in our sight tore it in two.

[4] Then they said to me: Abba Zosimus, go to Sinai: for God wishes to entrust to you the Church of Babylon. Immediately therefore we departed. And when we had come to Sinai, Zosimus becomes a Bishop. after a few days the Abbot sent me and two others in service to Alexandria: and the most blessed Pope of Alexandria, Apollinaris, detaining us, made all three of us Bishops, one indeed of Heliopolis, another of Leontopolis, and sent me to Babylon.

[5] Abbot Sabbatius said: When I was living in the monastery of Abbot Firminus, a certain robber came to Abbot Zosimus the Cilician and begged the old man, saying: Do me the kindness, I beseech you by God, since I am guilty of many murders, make me a monk, so that I may at last desist from my crimes. The old man, encouraging him, made him a monk A robber admitted by him as a monk, and gave him the holy habit. But after a short time the old man said to him: Believe me, my son, you cannot dwell here: for if the magistrate hears of it, he will seize you; and likewise your adversaries will kill you. But hear me, and I will lead you to the monastery of Abbot Dorotheus near Gaza and Maiouma. There, therefore, he went. And when he had stayed there for nine years and had learned the psalter and all the monastic observance, After nine years of penance, he returned again to the monastery of Firminus, to the old man, and said to him: Show me mercy, Father, and give me back my secular clothes, and take back the monastic ones. The old man, becoming sad, said to him: Why, my son? He answered: Behold, for nine years, as you know, Father, I lived in the monastery, and I fasted as much as I could, and I lived continently, and I was in subjection with all quietness and fear of God: He returns to the world, to expiate a great crime with his death. and I know that His infinite goodness has forgiven me many of my sins: but yet I often see a little boy standing near, saying to me: Why did you kill me? I see him in my dreams, and in the church, and when I go to communion, and in the refectory, saying the same things to me; and he does not allow me to rest for even a single hour. Therefore, Father, I wish to go, so that I may die for that little boy. For I killed the little boy himself in vain and without any cause. Having therefore taken his clothes, he went out. And, going thus dressed to Diospolis, he was seized, and on the following day beheaded.

Annotations

Notes

a. John Moschus, that is, and Sophronius the Sophist.
b. Concerning Mount Sinai and its monasteries, we have treated on January 14, in the Life of Saints Sabas, Isaiah, and others, no. 36, and again in the history of the death of Saints Theodulus, Paul, John, etc.
c. [The Ammoniac Region.] St. Athanasius in tome 1, in the letter to those leading the solitary life, mentions this place: They banished, he says, Bishops who had grown old in the clergy and spent many years in the episcopate, of whom Ammonius was sent to the Upper Oasis; Muïs, Psenosiris, Ilamones, Plenes, Marcus, Athenodorus, they sent into exile to Ammoniaca, seeking nothing else than that they might perish wandering in deserted and lonely places, etc. Ammoniaca is a region in Ptolemy, book 4, chapter 5, and Table 3 of Africa, beyond the Oasis in outer Libya.
d. In Greek: apo sibinou kolobion. And in chapter 120, those clad in tunics of sibinum are mentioned. Rosweyde in his Notes on Moschus, no. 26, and in the Onomasticon, confesses that he has not yet discovered what sibinum is. Perhaps "sabanum" should be read. Monks of St. Pachomius, in Benedict's Concordance of Rules, chapter 42, section 3, from the Rule of St. Pachomius, chapter 81, are allowed two short tunics, or colobii, and one worn out by use made of sabanum, which is wrapped around the neck and shoulders. Sabanum [Sabanum.] is a linen cloth, or sheet, as St. Isidore testifies in book 19 of the Origins, chapter 16, where, treating of linens, he says: sabanum is a Greek word. Victor in book 3 of the Vandal persecution: Secretly and in stealth, unknown to all, she carried the linens with which she had received him at the font when she raised him. And shortly after: These are the sheets, Elpidophorus, minister of error, which will accuse you. St. Gregory in book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 55: He found a certain unknown man prepared for his service, who would remove the shoes from his feet, receive his garments, and offer linens to him as he came out of the baths. And elsewhere in the Dialogues: They could not bury him who, when dead, had been washed according to custom, dressed in garments, and bound in a linen cloth, as evening came on. Benedict in the Concordance of Rules, chapter 41, section 2, from the Rule of the Master, chapter 17: A Brother should have assigned whetstones, and sponges for shoes, towels, napkins, or linens. The old Greek-Latin Lexicon of Henry Stephanus: Sabanon, sabanum, lencium, read linteum. Concerning the linen tunic of the monks in Egypt, we have treated on January 17, in the life of St. Antony, no. 66, in the Prolegomena.
e. Pyoterius, or Pitirus, an anchorite sitting in Porphyrites, was admonished by an Angel to inquire in the monastery of women of the Tabennesiotes about a holier woman than himself. Pelagius, book 6 of the Lives of the Fathers, booklet 18, no. 19. Palladius, book 8, chapter 42. He lived near Bethlehem with Posidonius, who also had formerly lived alone in a cave in Porphyrites, chapter 77.
f. Concerning him and his Laura changed into a monastery, we have treated on January 20.
g. He was present at the Fifth Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in the year of Christ 553. Concerning the time of his see, we have treated on January 23, in the life of St. John the Almsgiver, in the Prolegomena, section 3, no. 14.
h. Heliopolis, Leontopolis, and Babylon are ancient and famous cities of Lower Egypt, which they call the Delta, not far distant from one another. Consult Ptolemy, Strabo, and others.
i. Firminus was one of the first seventy disciples of St. Sabas: concerning whom in his manuscript Life: Among these disciples was also the great Firminus, who afterwards prepared a great monastery in the parts of Magma. The printed Life, December 5: Among these disciples were Firminus and Severianus, of whom one built the Laura that is in Malischa, the other the monastery that is in Maricha. The monastery of St. Firminus is numbered among the places of the desert of the holy city in the Council of Constantinople under Pope Agapetus and Patriarch Menas in the year of Christ 536.
k. So the Greek and Latin copies. If it is the same Zosimus of whom we have already treated, these things must have happened before he went to Porphyrites, from which he went to Mount Sinai, and shortly after was made Bishop. And perhaps, having left the governance of that monastery, he withdrew with his disciple John into that wilderness, out of a desire for quiet.
l. Concerning Gaza and its port Maiouma, we shall treat more fully on February 26, in the Life of St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza. Concerning both, see Adrichomius on the tribe of Simeon, chapters 46 and 56.
m. Diospolis, formerly Lydda, also called Georgiopolis, near Joppa. Of which we have treated on January 22, in the life of St. Anastasius, chapter 2, no. 16, letter F. There are other cities of Diospolis in Egypt.

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