ZOSIMAS OF CILICIA

On October 2 (September 19), the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Zosima of Cilicia. The saint was an ascetic in the mountains of Cilicia and suffered for his Christian confession. According to his life, the saint led a hermit’s life in the mountains of Cilicia, a historical region located in the southeast of Asia Minor, in the territory of modern Turkey. Researchers believe that his original life dates back to the 5th century. The exact time of the saint’s life is unknown to us. In the Orthodox liturgical calendar, Zosima is called a holy martyr.

Zosima lived as a hermit in the mountains, where there were many wild animals. Such a neighborhood caused indignation among the pagans, who, even in times of no systematic persecution, constantly denounced Christians. Seeing the virtues and, especially, the signs and miracles inherent in the Christian faith, the pagans accused them of witchcraft and atheism. By atheism they meant disbelief in traditional pagan deities, and explained the steadfastness of Christians in asceticism and, especially, martyrdom as magic. Not only the ignorant crowd thought so, but the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121-180) wrote in his diaries. At all times, paganism brought blindness even to enlightenment.

The local ruler, Domitian, arrested Zosima and ordered him to sacrifice to the idols. In response, Zosima confessed Christ, for which he was subjected to cruel torture. The pagans wanted to silence the saint and hear groans of pain instead of the name of the One God. Then, according to the life, in fulfillment of the words of the Gospel that if “the people remain silent, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40), a wild lion came out to the crowd and loudly, as everyone around heard, proclaimed the name of Christ., Amidst general confusion, a guard named Athanasius believed in Christ and freed the saint. Then Zosima and Athanasius hid together in a crevice of the rocks. The presence of a huge lion, which did not leave Saint Zosima, kept the pagans from interfering.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). The Fathers of the Church and subsequent exegetes of the Holy Scripture interpreted the Gospel differently. The Holy Scripture is God clothed in words. It is inexhaustible. But a particular, amazing, and truly visible explanation of what Christ said appeared in the lives of those saints who had acquired the grace of a special trusting relationship with the animal world. Here is the mystery of what meekness means and the earth that the righteous inherit. It is to be and live like the saints, whom wild animals trusted and served. They recognized in such righteous people the personification of creation unconquered by man, “the earth”, the original world created by God, in which there was neither death nor suffering (cf. Rev. 21:4). Such will be, according to the Revelation of John, the life of the age to come.