Zenobius and Zenobia

The holy martyrs Zenobius and his sister Zenobia died as martyrs around the year 290, in the persecution of Diocletian. The Orthodox and the Catholic Church commemorate them on 30 October.

According to Byzantine hagiography, Zenobius and his sister Zenobia were from Aegae in Cilicia. Zenobius was a physician and, for his gift of healing, he was consecrated bishop of Aegae. The two were tortured and beheaded around 290.

It has sometimes been argued that these figures are mythological, perhaps arisen from a confusion in the reading of martyrologies. Hippolyte Delehaye suggested that an unknown hagiographer put the account together from parts of the life of Saints Cosmas and Damian, mixed with mentions of several saints named Zenobius. This is therefore a commemoration whose historicity is disputed.