Venerable Zosimas of Phoenicia (VI)
The Venerable Zosimas of Phoenicia (VI) was born in the Syrian village of Sinda, near Tyre. He was tonsured a monk while still quite young. Zosimas glorified the Lord by fasting, prayer, physical labour and other good works. The venerable father received from God the grace of foresight. He foretold the terrible earthquake that struck Antioch in 526.
Once the patrician Arcesilaus visited the saint. Soon a messenger came after the guest and told him that a splinter had pierced his wife’s eye and she was suffering terribly. The venerable father calmed Arcesilaus: “The hierarch of Caesarea, John of Chozeba (commemorated 3 October), has already healed your wife.”
The Venerable Zosimas reached such a degree of spiritual perfection that even the beasts obeyed him. Once, as the saint was on his way to Caesarea, a hungry lion seized his donkey and ate it. The venerable father sought out the beast and said to it: “Friend, I am old and cannot carry a heavy load. Carry my burden, and then go back to the desert and be fierce again according to the law of thy nature.” The lion meekly carried the load as far as Caesarea, and there Zosimas set it free.
