Zeno of Carthage

Holy Martyr Zeno of Carthage was one of the forty Christians who, under the leadership of Saint Terence, confessed Christ in Africa, in the time of Emperor Decius (249-251).

The emperor had commanded all his subjects to sacrifice to the idols. Receiving the order, the governor of Africa, Fortunatian, gathered the people in the square, showed the instruments of torture and announced that all without exception must sacrifice. Many, from fear, yielded, but forty Christians led by Terence confessed their faith in the Savior. Fortunatian saw that Terence inspired the others and shut him in prison with his closest friends, Africanus, Maximus and Pompius. The rest, among them Zeno, Alexander and Theodore, he tried to force to renounce Christ. Neither exhortations nor torments moved them: they were burned with red-⁠hot iron, their wounds were sprinkled with vinegar and rubbed with salt, and their bodies scraped with iron claws.

Fortunatian brought them to a temple and demanded once more that they sacrifice. They cried to God to bring down the idol temple, and the idols fell with a crash and crumbled to dust, and then the whole temple collapsed. The governor ordered them put to death, and they, glorifying God, bowed their heads under the sword. After the death of the thirty-⁠six, Fortunatian summoned Terence, Maximus, Africanus and Pompius, showed them the bodies and demanded again that they sacrifice. They refused, and he put them in heavy chains and ordered them left to die of hunger. In the night an angel took off their chains and fed them. In the morning the guards found them cheerful. The governor then ordered sorcerers to bring serpents into the prison, but the serpents crawled at the saints' feet, and when the doors were opened they rushed upon the sorcerers. At last Fortunatian ordered them beheaded. The Christians buried their bodies with honor outside the city.

Saint Zeno is commemorated on 23 April, in the new style, together with Terence and the others.