Zoora (
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
: ܙܥܘܪܐ, ''Zeʿora'';
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Ζωόρας, ''Zooras'') was a
Syrian
Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...
Miaphysite
Miaphysitism is the Christology, Christological doctrine that holds Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, the "Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnate Logos (Christianity), Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (''physis'')." It is a posi ...
monk and
stylite
A stylite ( grc, στυλίτης () 'pillar dweller', derived from () 'pillar' and syc, ܐܣܛܘܢܐ ()) or pillar-saint is a type of Christian ascetic who lives on pillars, preaching, fasting and praying. Stylites believe that the mortifi ...
in the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. He moved to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
in the early 530s and was condemned at the
Council of Constantinople in 536. He died a few years later.
Zoora's life is known mainly from the
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
written by his contemporary,
John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus (or of Asia) ( Greek: Ίωάννης ό Έφέσιος, c. 507 – c. 588) was a leader of the early Syriac Orthodox Church in the sixth century and one of the earliest and the most important historians to write in Syriac. John of ...
, who probably met him in Constantinople around 536. The first part of it is missing. Zoora hailed from the region around
Amida. He was short in stature and his name means "small" in Syriac. He received his spiritual training under a certain Habib. Sometime before the
Hunnic invasion of 515, during the reign of
Anastasius I, he ascended a pillar.
Zoora remained a stylite through at least to the end of the reign of
Justin I
Justin I ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, ''Ioustînos''; 450 – 1 August 527) was the Eastern Roman emperor from 518 to 527. Born to a peasant family, he rose through the ranks of the army to become commander of the imperial ...
(died 527). He was forced to descend by the
Chalcedonians
Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christolo ...
. He went to Constantinople early in the reign of Justin's successor,
Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
. By this time he was renowned locally and arrived in Constantinople with an entourage of ten disciples. He had a stormy interview with Justinian, during which he cursed the emperor for persecuting the faithful (i.e., the Miaphysites) and the emperor reminded him that he had proclaimed the death penalty for all who cursed the
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bith ...
. Although his theological rivals initially feared his eloquence, they came to regard him as entirely ignorant of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
. He probably had little or no formal education; his spiritual authority and ''
parrhesia
In rhetoric, parrhesia is a figure of speech described as "speak ngcandidly or ... ask ngforgiveness for so speaking". This Ancient Greek word has three different forms, as related by Michel Foucault. ''Parrhesia'' is a noun, meaning "free speec ...
'' (forthrightness) stemmed from his strict asceticism.
Justinian's Miaphysite empress,
Theodora
Theodora is a given name of Greek origin, meaning "God's gift".
Theodora may also refer to:
Historical figures known as Theodora
Byzantine empresses
* Theodora (wife of Justinian I) ( 500 – 548), saint by the Orthodox Church
* Theodora o ...
, intervened to protect Zoora. When Justinian suffered from swelling, she had the monk pray for him, which supposedly healed him. She established him in the posh district of
Sykai
Sykai or Sycae, later known as Justinianae or Ioustinianai and Justinianopolis or Ioustinianoupolis, was a town of ancient Thrace, a suburb of Byzantium/Constantinople, inhabited during Roman and Byzantine times.
Its site is located near Galata ...
, where he officiated at baptisms and celebrated the Miaphysite liturgy, otherwise illegal in the empire. For this reason he was identified as a priest at the council of 536. He also reportedly set up 100 tables a day to feed the poor, which contributed immensely to his popularity. He baptised even some children of the
Imperial Guards.
John of Ephesus claimed that the fame of Zoora drew
Pope Agapetus I
Pope Agapetus I (489/490 – 22 April 536) was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two previous popes, Felix III and Gregory I.
In 536, Agapetus traveled ...
to Constantinople in 536. Whatever the case, the pope consented to the deposition of the Miaphysite patriarch
Anthimus I, confirmed the orthodoxy of Justinian's declaration of faith and consecrated a new patriarch,
Mennas. According to John, the pope's sudden death on April 22 was a result of a curse placed on him by Zoora. Mennas called a council to meet in August and on August 13, in response to the council's concerns, Justinian banned Zoora and the other heretics from Constantinople. The monk did not immediately leave, but he eventually moved to
Dercus The Metropolis of Derkoi ( el, Ἱερὰ Μητρόπολις Δέρκων) is a residential see of the Eastern Orthodox Church subject to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and situated in the Istanbul suburb of Yesilköy (historically S ...
in Thrace.
At Dercus, Zoora was joined by the deposed Patriarch
Theodosius of Alexandria in 537. Theodora soon had both of them moved into the
Palace of Hormisdas
The Palace of Boukoleon ( el, Βουκολέων) or Bucoleon was one of the Byzantine palaces in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul in Turkey.) The palace is located on the shore of the Sea of Marmara, to the south of the Hippodrome and eas ...
. The date of his death is unknown.
Many miracles were attributed to Zoora after his death. In the
Syriac Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = syc
, image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg
, imagewidth = 250
, alt = Cathedral of Saint George
, caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...
, he is regarded as a saint. His feast may be celebrated on 16 March, 11 May, 1 October or 8 October. In the 7th century, there was a church at Amida dedicated to Zoora. There were also many monasteries dedicated to him as far away as
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, which Justinian ordered closed after the council of 536.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Stylites
Syriac Orthodox Church saints
6th-century Byzantine monks
6th-century Christian saints
People of Roman Syria
Ancient Christians involved in controversies
6th-century people