Zeno of Cappadocia

Venerable Zeno (middle of the fourth century to about 418) was an ascetic from Pontus, a hermit near Antioch in Syria. He is commemorated on 30 January and on 10 February (Old Style). News of his life comes from Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, in the twelfth chapter of his "Religious History".

Life

He was born in Pontus, into a wealthy family. There he received the lessons of Christian piety; Theodoret, from Zeno's own words, writes that he "had been watered from the springs of Basil the Great". He served in the army of the emperor Valens, where he was occupied with the swift delivery of letters. Right after the death of Valens, in 378, Zeno left military service and moved, from the imperial palaces, into a tomb on a mountain near Antioch, where he gave himself to divine contemplation and voluntary poverty. He had no soft bed, but slept on hard stones barely covered with straw and rubbish; no hearth, pot, jug or book; his clothing was old rags, his shoes so worn that he had to tie up the soles that fell off. His food, a small loaf for two days, he received from an acquaintance, and the water he carried himself, from a distant spring. Theodoret first visited the hermit's cell and spoke with him when he was still a reader. On Sundays Zeno went to church, where he prayed and received communion. His cell had neither bolt nor lock and was not guarded, and there was nothing in it but rubbish. He took books from friends one at a time, read it through and only after returning it took another.

In his homeland he had left much property and younger brothers with whom he had to divide the inheritance from his parents. For a long time Zeno was burdened by this wealth and did not wish to leave his cell to go to his homeland, but he also feared to entrust the sale to others, lest it be sold for nothing and his brothers be left with nothing. After long torment he found a man who bought the property from him at a good price. Dividing the money with his brothers, Zeno gave his share to the head of the Church of Antioch, Alexander (on the see from 412 to 417). He lived in his cell forty years and died about 418.

Veneration

In the Greek local Churches today Zeno is venerated as patron of the postal service, and in the Greek menaia and synaxaria he is called "Zeno the Swift-⁠footed" (the runner). This name is not in Theodoret's source; it seems to have been chosen as patron of postal workers because in Valens's army he carried letters quickly.