Zotikos of Constantinople

1, On the penultimate day of the year according to the Julian calendar, and the penultimate day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ — January 12 in the Gregorian calendar — the Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Zotikos the Orphanotrophos. As his epithet indicates, Zotikos was a defender of the poor. He was a saint of Constantinople. He appeared in the imperial capital shortly after the city was founded by Emperor Constantine in 330. According to a Roman legend, he was one of the “twelve great ones” who accompanied the emperor from Rome for the construction of the new capital. 

2, With the help of Constantine, he founded the first poorhouse in Constantinople, to which he dedicated his new life. In the middle of the 4th century, a great number of lepers flocked to the capital. There was talk of an epidemic. The ruling authorities launched persecutions against these unfortunate sufferers, drowning them in the sea or otherwise destroying them with the help of the army and police. With money left from Constantine’s donations, Zotikos would ransom the sick with bribes and thus save them from execution.

3, One day, the emperor’s daughter came to his institution. Thus the court learned of his existence and of the fact that he not only disregarded “quarantine measures” but also supported Nicene Orthodoxy. Zotikos was a Christian priest, and the authorities demanded that he confess the officially established faith. Constantine’s successor and son, Constantius, was an Arian heretic. A priest devoted to charity, and moreover a friend of his great father, and yet not an Arian but a “Nicene,” — this enraged the emperor.

4, “Empire Faith” is an important historical expression, meaning that Orthodoxy in that era was understood not as a private opinion or personal religious stance, but as the official confession of the Roman and later Byzantine Empire — that is, a faith recognized and protected by the state. Therefore Constantius and his entourage, although not truly Orthodox, considered themselves to be so, and for this reason sought to impose their confession upon Saint Zotikos, believing that they were defending the true faith of the.

5, Wishing to test whether he was pleasing to God, according to a barbaric custom he was tied to mules and dragged through the streets of the capital. Thus he died. At the place of his sudden death, a spring of water began to bring healing. The heart of Emperor Constantius was struck with horror, and he ordered a leprosarium to be built there. This was the first such institution in the history of the capital.

6, The life and death of Saint Zotikos represent a remarkable and tragic example of the fulfillment of the commandment of the Lord Jesus concerning the highest form of love: to lay down one’s life for others (John 15:13). Like the great missionary saint of the past century, the Flemish priest Damien De Veuster (1840–1889), Zotikos is the “Apostle of Lepers.” We do not know whether Saint Damien knew about Zotikos the Orphanotrophos, but the grace of the Holy Spirit made Damien his imitator. Such a remarkable unity confirms the New Testament truth that grace is communication.