Venerable (Monastic) 6th century

Zosimas of Palestine

c. 460 – c. 560

Also known as Venerable Zosimas of Palestine · Zosimas the Anchorite

An aged priest-monk of a monastery near the Jordan who, while keeping a Lenten retreat in the desert, encountered Saint Mary of Egypt; he later gave her Holy Communion and, returning a year afterward, found her reposed and buried her.

Feast Day

April 4

Draft

Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Zosimas of Palestine

Life

Zosimas of Palestine was a monk and priest of the Holy Land whose memory is preserved almost entirely through his role in the life of Saint Mary of Egypt. By tradition he became a monk in a Palestinian monastery at a very young age and acquired a reputation as an experienced elder and ascetic, sought out by visitors from neighbouring monasteries. He is commemorated on April 4.

Late in life he settled at a strict community in the wilderness near the Jordan River, where he spent his remaining years. According to the tradition, it was the custom of that monastery for the brethren to go out into the desert for the forty days of Great Lent, passing the time in solitude, fasting, and prayer, and not returning until the approach of Pascha. It was during one such Lenten withdrawal that Zosimas is said to have encountered Mary of Egypt.

The whole of what is known of Zosimas derives from the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt, a work attributed to Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (in office 634–638), who is said to have drawn on oral tradition handed down among the monks of Palestine. Within that narrative Zosimas serves as the witness and recorder of Mary's account, communing her on the banks of the Jordan and afterward burying her in the desert. The sources reckon that he lived to nearly a hundred years and reposed around the year 560.

Contributions & Legacy

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Encounter with Mary of Egypt

While keeping the Lenten retreat in the desert, Zosimas is said to have met a solitary ascetic woman who related to him the story of her former life and long penitence; she is identified in the tradition as Mary of Egypt. She asked him to come the following year to the bank of the Jordan on Holy Thursday and to bring her Holy Communion, which he did.

Returning afterward to seek her again in the wilderness, Zosimas found that she had reposed, and he buried her. This episode is the reason for his commemoration: he is remembered as the elder who communed Mary of Egypt and gave her burial, and through whom her life became known. The sources connect the encounter to the reign of the emperor Justinian I (527–565).

Identity and sources

Zosimas of Palestine is distinct from other saints bearing the name Zosimas, including Zosimus, Bishop of Syracuse. Because his story survives only embedded in the Life of Mary of Egypt rather than in an independent biography, the details of his own life are few, and later authors hedge them as belonging to tradition rather than to documented record.

Notes

The elder who communed and buried Saint Mary of Egypt. Distinct from Zosimus, Bishop of Syracuse (a different saint).

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints; en.wikipedia.org